Continued from Part 4...
Friday, May 18. Still in Dresden. Off to the Albertinum. Met my "new German friends" who were at the New Green Vault with me yesterday. We were all in awe.
Albertinum - This building houses the New Masters Art Gallery. The gallery describes it as "Romantic to present." The front entrance is non-descript, but there is very clear signage outside. This gallery was a wonderful, pleasant surprise that I highly recommend. Renoir, Manet, Libermann, Monet, VanGogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec. What more could an aficionado ask for?
Residenzschloss. My next stop was the Residence Schloss. I almost missed this and really did not know what it was. I am so glad that I visited this collection: knights and horse's armor, fabrics and costuming (parade dress) so beautiful -- and to think much, if not all, would have been done by hand. Exquisite cabinets and game tables.
My Dresden trip ended. Had to catch the Dresden train back to Berlin.
Saturday. Wanted to head back to KaDeWe so that I could walk on the Kurfurstendamm, also known as the former Fifth Avenue of Berlin. It was on my agenda to walk on this street and see the shops. Stopped at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church; the new attached "blue church" was closed for a service.
Sunday, May 20 -- Charlottenburg Palace -- This was a Wow! day for me. Off to Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. I give this palace three stars and definitely say it is worth a visit. (Some of the tour books give it one star; others give it three.) I had a great day visiting this palace; i.e., the Porcelain "Cabinet" Room, the Palace Chapel.
P.S. Be aware that I must have started my tour with the "old wing." You have to go outside, follow a path, and enter the "new wing." If you are short on time, the "new wing" is much more impressive than the "old wing." There is plenty of bike-riding around this palace, and the back side faces the Spree River -- again, very pretty.
Monday, Potsdam -- Sanssouci Schloss and Sanssouci New Palace. I was off to see more palaces on Monday.
There are two items of caution with respect to Sanssouci.
Generally, for Mondays and Tuesdays, the Schloss is closed on one day and the Palace is closed on another day. So, generally if you want to see both the Schloss and the New Palace, go on days other than Mondays and Tuesdays. I was lucky; May 21 was a holiday; so both the Schloss and Palace were open.
The second word of caution is to allow three hours between the Schloss entrance time and the New Palace entrance time. My times tickets were two hours apart and I was late for the Schloss entrance time. The staff was very kind to me and re-issued a later entrance time. I KNOW they would not do this during peak season with the summer crowds.
Reasons for being late: I leisurely toured and photographed the New Palais first. I needed to sit down and rest between the two buildings. I needed to eat a little something and drink something. I was not exactly clear on where you walk, to get to the Schloss. I believe it is about a mile, if you know what you are doing. Then, I also was not very clear on where to get the bus and which one to get on, from the New Palais to the Schloss. (Apparently, there is a little bit of a bus/transportation hub over by the Schloss, but there is just a bus stop/bench over by the New Palais). For me, all was not very clear.
If you allow three hours between sites, you will have time for a beautiful, leisurely garden walk from the Palais to the Schloss. Also, if you had this extra time, you could go off to see some of the ancillary buildings, etc.
Both the Schloss and the New Palais were exquisite. The New Palais has Grotto Hall and Marble Hall. The schloss has an equal amount of majesty. I did get the impression that the New Palais had clearer placards, to help understand what you were looking at.
To be continued...