Potsdam City & Castles Bus and Walking Tour

Potsdam Old Town and the Dutch Quarter

The tour begins with a drive through Potsdam's inner city, where the Baroque street grid laid out in the eighteenth century still frames the view: the rebuilt City Palace facade on the Old Market, the dome of St Nicholas' Church and the Brandenburg Gate of Potsdam at the end of Brandenburger Strasse. From the coach you understand how the town grew as a garrison and royal residence next to Berlin, and why so much of it had to be rebuilt after 1945.

The highlight of this part is the Dutch Quarter, four blocks of red-brick gabled houses built between 1733 and 1740 for craftsmen invited from the Netherlands. It is the largest closed ensemble of Dutch-style houses outside the Netherlands, today full of small shops, cafes and galleries. If you are planning a Potsdam Dutch Quarter visit on your own afterwards, the tour shows you exactly where it is, a short walk from Nauener Tor and the city centre.

Glienicke Bridge and the Forbidden City

The coach then crosses to the north-east edge of town, to the Glienicke Bridge over the Havel. This green steel bridge, opened in 1907, links Potsdam with Berlin and from 1949 to 1989 marked the border between East Germany and West Berlin. It became famous because captured agents were exchanged on it in the Cold War, and the different shades of green on the two halves still show where each side repainted its part. The commentary explains the exchanges and the daily life of a divided city.

Next to the bridge lies the former Military Town No. 7, nicknamed the Forbidden City: a quarter of villas sealed off by the Soviet counter-intelligence service until 1994. You hear how a whole neighbourhood vanished behind a wall for almost fifty years, and why the Glienicke Bridge is today a must on any Potsdam sightseeing tour and a favourite photo stop on the way to Cecilienhof.

Cecilienhof Palace and the New Garden

At Cecilienhof you leave the coach for a guided walk around the palace. Built between 1913 and 1917 in the style of an English Tudor country house, with brick chimneys and half-timbered gables, it was the last palace built by the Prussian royal family. Its place in world history came in the summer of 1945, when the leaders of the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom met here for the Potsdam Conference that shaped post-war Europe. The red star of flowers planted in the main courtyard for the meeting is still maintained.

The palace stands in the New Garden, a landscape park on the Jungfernsee and the Heiliger See that also holds the Marble Palace and lakeside follies. The walk around Cecilienhof Palace takes in the facades, the courtyard and views over the water; interior visits are not included, so if you want a Cecilienhof Palace tour inside the conference rooms, plan it after the tour or on another day.

Alexandrowka, the Russian Colony

The next stop is unlike anything else in Potsdam: Alexandrowka, a colony of Russian log houses with carved gables and fruit gardens, set out in the shape of a St Andrew's cross. The Prussian king had it built in 1826 and 1827 for the last singers of a Russian military choir that had been stationed in Potsdam, and named it after Tsar Alexander I, who had died the year before. Each house came with a garden and a cow, and descendants of the original families still live in some of them.

Your walk through Alexandrowka Russian colony passes the wooden houses, the orchards planted with hundreds of historic apple and pear varieties and, on the hill above, the small Russian Orthodox church of Alexander Nevsky. Since 1999 the colony has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the Potsdam palaces and parks, and it is a quiet, photogenic contrast to the grand palaces that follow.

Sanssouci Palace and the Vineyard Terraces

The climax of the tour is Sanssouci, the summer palace that gave Potsdam its fame. It was built between 1745 and 1747 on top of six curved vineyard terraces, with vines and fig trees growing in glass-fronted niches and a long staircase leading down to the great fountain. The name means without worries, and the single-storey Rococo palace was designed as a private retreat rather than a seat of government. On the top terrace, beside the palace, you see the simple grave slab of the king who built it, usually decorated with potatoes left by visitors in memory of the crop he promoted.

The guided walk covers the terraces, the grave and the view down the parterre. Entry to the palace rooms is not included and Sanssouci tickets can only be bought on the day of your visit, so if you want to go inside, allow time after the tour ends and check Sanssouci opening hours for the season.

Sanssouci Park and the New Palace

From the terraces the route continues through part of Sanssouci Park, a landscaped park of about 290 hectares that stretches two kilometres west from the palace along a straight main avenue. You pass the Chinese House with its gilded figures, fountains and garden sculptures, and the commentary explains how later kings added palaces, an orangery and picture gallery to the original vineyard garden. The park is open from dawn to dusk and is free to walk in, which makes it a good place to return to after the tour.

The avenue ends at the New Palace, the largest palace in Potsdam, built between 1763 and 1769 to show the strength of Prussia after the Seven Years' War. With about 200 rooms, a theatre and a grotto hall lined with shells and minerals, it is seen from the outside on the tour. Many visitors ask whether a Sanssouci Park tour fits in a single afternoon: with the coach doing the distances, this itinerary proves it does.