ghost of nature.

framed: werder/havel. we left potsdam on a friday, but not to go home immediately, no, we still wanted to make the most of the day before heading home eventually. since the drive from potsdam back to my parent's place only lasts around 3 hours, we still had plenty of time to stop at some places in the state of brandenburg, namely the small city of werder by the havel river & lehnin abbey. werder ( havel )  is known for its medieval inner city that was built upon an island right in the middle of the havel river. it's also called the blossom city because surrounding the town you can find lots & lots of fruit tree plantations who will eventually bloom in spring ( we didn't get so lucky in november ;P ). we only spent a small amount of time here, because it was really cold & rainy that morning and it wasn't so nice to walk around like that. the few restaurants on the island were closed still, so no sitting inside either. one thing i know for sure,...

the grotto hall inside the new palace. on our last full day in potsdam we re-visited the new palace again as it was open to the public that day ( it was closed the last time we made our way there, unfortunately, but we really wanted to see it from the inside ). my mother had talked a lot about the palace and how impressive & majestic it was. back when she was a teenager she was able to also visit the palace theater & the appartment of the king ( which was now under construction & couldn't be entered ). her eyes had always had that special glow whenever she talked about it and now, after visiting the palace myself, i will probably look the same when you see me talking about it ;) the interiors are utterly pompous & luxurious, completely breath-taking & mind-blowing. i have never seen so much splendor in a palace before.  as i have written before, the palace was built to be a representative place for gatherings of the royal family. frederick the great h...