July 23

    Our bus-ferry-train-bus trip from our Berlin campground to Potsdam served us well. We were standing in  line at the Sansoucci Palace before the ticket office opened at 10 a.m. and were part of the third group allowed in.

    This whole park is a complex of palaces and gardens built in the 1700s by Frederick the Great (of whom Germans--well, many of them--are very proud) and added to in the 1800s by Frederick William IV. We visited three ornate, overdone palaces and a separate luxurious art gallery and walked through miles of gardens. The approach to one of the palaces had 93 steps from garden to door. Although these buildings survived the war, some of the art has been...uh…appropriated by others over the years. (It was interesting to read the museum commentators’ dilemma: how to convey disapproval of the behavior of others vis a vis German art treasures without seeming to be hopelessly unaware of the German Reich’s own behavior when shoes were on other feet.)

    True German palace overload for one very warm day. But the bus-train-ferry-biergarten-bus return worked well, and since Rover’s campingplatz has been in the shade in the afternoon, she isn’t even to hot to return home to.

    We have been looking for Cheerios since we got to Germany. We had no trouble finding (a version of) them in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but not, alas, in Germany. We finally found something that looked like fat ones--labeled ‘Saltoos’--which didn’t sound too healthy. It also had a little sign saying ‘100% Dinkels.’  David insists that “one can never have enough Dinkels,” so we bought some and will give it a try.