Warnemunde Shore Excursion

This Warnemunde shore trip focuses on the marvelous gardens & palaces in Potsdam. This town was once the playground of the Prussian kings and it was here that they maintained their vast estates. It later became the site of the famous Potsdam Conference, which was held in 1945.

Your driver will meet you at the pier and upon arrival in Potsdam you meet your guide. You pass over the Glienicke Bridge, known as Spy Bridge, where Gary Powers was exchanged for the master spy Rudolph Abel during the Cold War. From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin Wall ran close by the Glienicke Bridge, on which many other exchanges of captured agents took place.

You stop at the lovely Cecilienhof Palace, built in 1916 in the style of an English country house and the site of the Allied Potsdamer Conference where the new borders of Europe were redrawn after World War II. This historical conference between Churchill, Truman and Stalin ordered the future of defeated Germany. The conference goals included establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war.

Next you continue to the magnificent centerpiece of the Potsdam park landscape, the Palace of Sanssouci set above six vineyard terraces. It is one of the most beautiful remaining examples of French / Prussian Rococo architecture and was Frederick the Great's favorite summer residence. It was his wish to be buried in a simple tomb on the uppermost vineyard terrace, which was finally realized in 1991. For most visitors, the gardens are more impressive than the palace!

You will depart this UNESCO listed World Heritage Site for another of Frederick's great palaces and probably one of the most ostentatious palaces ever built by this great king, the New Palace. This is the largest 18th century structure in the Sanssouci park and served Frederick II as a palace for his guests.

After your day in Germany's capital you return to the pier in Rostock / Warnemunde.

Mobility: Folding wheelchair OK, some sites may be inaccessible (advance notice required).