Potsdam for 1 day

I took a walking tour day trip to Potsdam with Berlin with "Berlin Walks" and it was one of my favorite experiences ever. It was pretty long, about 5-1/2 hours but worth the effort and the walking. We took the train from the Zoologischer Garten station (where the tour met) to Potsdam and then walked through the town, seeing the Glienicke Bridge (the 'bridge of spies'), the New Garden, the Cecilienhof Palace, the Marble Palace, the Dutch Qtr, the Russian Qtr, then had lunch (on our own) and ended with a walk to the Sanssouci Palace. Sanssouci was not included with the tour but most of those in our group stayed to tour the palace and grounds. I just walked around the grounds a little bit and then made my way back to Berlin because I had reservations to tour the Reichstag Building that evening so I skipped the big palace. One of the best tours I've ever taken in Europe and I recommend it.

We spent a day in Potsdam, traveling there from Berlin by train. We toured Sans Souci and then walked in the wooded lands near the palace. Beautiful. Potsdam is a nice town without sightseeing any particular places.

Hi,

If you're spending the entire day in Potsdam, take the S-Bahn with Potsdam Hbf as the terminus, sign up with one of thetours outside the train station, usually 3 different companies. What I wanted was a tour that took you to both Sans Souci and Neues Palais. Or, prior to doing that, you can check out the Tourist Office on the top floor of the station, numerous brochures there and inquire about the sights.

If you want to do something totally different, take the river cruise on the Havel, the Tourist Office provides the info. I like the guided bus tour so as to get an overview, after which you still have time to take one of the buses outside train station to a site you saw on the tour.

Walking through the town is well worth it too.

Since reunification the town has changed a lot, I saw it in 1992, when you could tell the difference from what I had seen in 1987 in its commie days. In 1987 you had the feeling that time and history in Potsdam had stopped in 1945 as you walked and looked at the streets, buildings, the up-keep, sidewalks, etc.

In 1987 I went there on the guided bus tour from (west) Berlin on Kurfürstendamm, the only way to get into Potsdam. "They" allowed you go to East Berlin as an individual visitor but not to Potsdam.

I have posted this before as a recommendation to read before going to Potsdam and it was one of my favorite books ever. "The House by the Lake: One House, Five Families, and a Hundred Years of German History" by Thomas Harding.
I learned so much history!

Great ideas by all, thank you very much. We do not mind walking a lot!