Day in Charlottenburg

It was another day with Frederick the Great, Old Fritz, his grandmother and successors

Entrance to Schloss Charlottenberg

From the gardens

Some of the artifacts from Herman Schliemann's excavation of Troy, the museum of which is at Charlottenberg

Alas, the museum was closed for renovation, but we did make it to the Cafe Schliemann

We parked on Schloss Strasse, next to this beautiful old pump

As if Schloss Sanssouci were not enough, Sunday we spent most of the day at Schloss Charlottenburg, the palace Frederick the 1st built for his wife, Charlotte. After bearing him an heir, she spent the rest of her relatively short life there, pursuing her interests in theatre, music, painting, philosophy and the sciences. She was Fred the Great's grandmother, and presumably the source of his more humane interests. With her friend and tutor, Leibniz (inventor of the calculus and monads), she founded the Berlin academy of the sciences. Schloss Charlottenberg was badly damaged in WWII, but is now well restored, and many of its interior furnishings and art were saved and are now on display. It was built originally in the late 1690s. Fred the Great resided there for a time, but much of what is on display is from the mid-19th century, when later Prussian kings and queens resided there (in addition to the Berlin Schloss, the Potdam Schloss, Schloss Sanssouci, and others). Again, much art, mostly French (including David's “Napoleon as First Consul Crossing the Alps”), and much history. Happily, for our tired feet, fewer buildings and grounds than Schloss Sanssouci, and generally fewer wows.