Backdate- Schloss Charlottenburg..
So in the early hours Andy and I hopped on our train- which for some reason had the destination of 'Happy Birthday' (perhaps it was a belated wish for Baby Jesus?), and headed to meet the young ladies at Schloss Charlottenburg- Berlin's largest palace.
Incidentally, that's probably all the factual context you're going to get from me- despite having audioguide in English I can't say that I retained a great deal of the information. I'm pretty sure that everyone was called Freidrich.... but beyond that I refer you to wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottenburg_Palace
As you can see, it was a lovely day.
Being the hungry students that we are, we were clever enough to time our visit with the final day of Charlottenburg Christmas markets. Bretzels for all!
Here is us being the disgusting tourists that we are:
The inside of the palace was perhaps as grandiose as one would expect: lots of gold leafing, frescoes, chandeliers and silk on the walls.
The palaces in Berlin were pretty badly damaged in the war, so a lot of what was shown was not original, although we were assured by our audioguider, who I must say had a very trustworthy voice, that care had been taken to collect items of the time. A lot of it was stolen straight from the 'Berlin Palace', which had been totally destroyed.
Still, it was a little odd to hear 'this chandelier/mirror is not the original from Sophie Charlotte's time, but we imagine that she would have liked it if she had owned it'.
We were told how much Sophie loved the arts, which may have explained the plethora of mildly disturbing images:
I believe the one above was either in the bedroom or some sort of 'morning room', because the scene depicts day/the sun chasing away night. I'm not certain why it also seems to have a little brown baby being stolen away, but I'm sure some of my audience will approve. Plus, apparently all the commotion is making it hard for the women to keep their breasts contained.
Sophie Charlotte, as described by the audio guide, was not only a lover of the arts, but also a wonderful musician.
Which is nice, but by the time they started telling us that she was both a lover of, and extremely wise and learned in the ways of, the arts and the sciences (including philosophy), I started to wonder if she was either the much more well-rounded version of Einstein, or just 'special at everything' in the the way that is somewhat similar to being 'special at nothing'.
Probably she was just The Queen. When I become The Queen, I shall expect you all to spread rumours about my ability to juggle. Also something Putin-esque.. maybe bear wrestling.
One thing that was particularly noticeable about this palace was the tendency towards the 3D, which in several instances was more grotesque than glamorous:
Maybe this one came about as an error in re-design following the bombing? Or maybe they just had a spare stag-head.
One of the key rooms in the palace is one that would put the combined hoarding efforts of my Aunt Diesel, Caity and my Father to shame:
As you can see from the mirrors, this is repeated throughout the whole room.
In later rooms, the audio guide discussed the china industry in Germany, and how if failed several times before being rescued by the King, so I want to pretend that this collection is purely the result of providing jobs to the countrymen.
But why could they not just collect cats like a normal person?
Of course the most ornate part of all was the chapel. Apparently you can more easily justify gross over-spending and ostentatious displays of wealth if you tell the masses that it's all For The Glory Of God. Basically, building a church inside a palace is kind of a tax dodge. And a mighty fine one too:
We made our way out into the gardens, which were pretty snazzy, but maybe more of a Summertime thing
The Mausoleum, looking suitably foreboding:
View back to the palace:
And some photos of us hanging around the duckpond. You'll notice something very wrong in the first picture- those poor duckies are standing on ice- Brrrrrrrrrrr
And then back to the markets to stuff our faces with Nutella and banana crepes!!
CONVERSATION