potsdam.

i've decided there are too many beautiful things in this country for me to see them all. this trip to potsdam i just kept snapping pictures of everything, even the pretty green FIELDS and i mean a photo just wouldn't do it justice. lucky for you i took a silly video in which i did 360 turn so hopefully you can get an idea of what we were dealing with over there. surrounded by beauty. some of it was nature. SOME of it was beautiful man made buildings. i'm a fan of both.

oh yeah i forgot i never learned how to put videos on my blog. that was a false alarm. on to the story.

first of all the weather this day was BIPOLAR. first it was rainy and annoying and then it would get hot and we'd take off our jackets and put our umbrellas away and then surprise (Überraschung!) it would RAIN AGAIN. come on germany figure this out. good news is that for the MOST part the end of the day was wonderful and we ended with a nice sunny day, it was a great excuse to pull out my cute new sun glasses from mon.

while in potsdam we visited Fredrick the Great's rather large estate and saw a few of his buildings. that man sure has a lot of buildings. there was a new palace. an old palace. a tea house. oh and we saw his grave, he wanted to be burried with his dogs. i remember that part. even though his property was a bit CRAZY huge, it sure was beautiful. he sure knew how to build some beautiful buildings. thanks for that, fred.

meet clint. he is an expert at history. has the kindest heart. and sure likes to talk.

confession: sometimes dr. kelling just looks so cute i just sneak pictures. what do you expect, look at the man!! also, fyi. i get about 4789 emails from him a day. he's just looking out for us, trying to keep us informed.

this was his tea house. no big deal. he had a house just for his tea parties.

the BEST part about this was the walk from his palace to the tea house. it was beautiful and lined by trees.

i'd go get tea just to go on the walk!

meet kendra!

former byu gymnast. we're in the same german class here and thank heavens for that because sometimes i just need to speak english to someone. we'll keep her around.

there were just too many of these blower things (do they have a name? old dandilions...hmm ya i don't know?) to pass this photo up.

see what i MEAN!

then we had to do it with the whole group...

and then sun came out.

beauty. and thank you clouds for participating in this picture.

i appreciate it.

any of you remember the Brandenburger Tor from this post? that one is located in berlin and as it turns out Frederick the Great just wanted one of his own. so he copied it and built one of his own in potsdam.

okay this picture is pretty much unrelated except for the fact that it was taken in potsdam...but do you see this girl's HAIR. i'm sorry that i didn't get a picture of the front of her because she had this pink sassy little girl glasses and was just adorable. but i didn't want her mother to think i was stalking her. but holy cow she was a keeper.

also. the name of this store.

someone really should have thought that out better.

and this man.

REALLY?! he was standing outside of the banhof (trainstation) and i just couldn't resist taking a picture. as katie would say...bless his heart! oh man.

well that's a quick overview of potsdam for ya. it was great because unlike all of the other towns we have visited, this one was only 20 minutes outside of berlin! the others were 3 or 4 hours away...a little less than ideal. this was super close and just as beautiful. also, i think because in my head the weather was so great that gives it a few extra gold stars. it's just the way things go! sun always makes my heart happy.