Off on our afternoon adventure, we navigate our way down through the huge park on little narrow paths with various sculptures rising up out of the tall grass and through the trees, arriving at the rear of the Neues Palace.

Sadly clad in scaffolding, the Palace is still an amazing sight – massive and stately, definitely the exact opposite of the intimate Sanssouci Palace.  This Palace was built by Frederik the Great for formal and official functions with grand banquet halls, galleries and guest suites.  FTG rarely stayed here, using the Palace as guest apartments and for celebrations only.

Even though it is under renovation, we are still captivated by the sculptures – even the lighting sculptures – and all the statues that have been removed and placed in a gated lot, like a crowd waiting to re-enter the Palace.

Around the front we have a good view of the Kolonnade mit Triumphtor, the Triumphal Gate and colonnades, built to mask the buildings on either side of the Gate that were once the Service Quarters, Stable and Kitchen buildings for the palace.  Why they would want to screen these beautiful and grandiose buildings is anyone’s guess!  You’d never know they were the “utility: buildings. 

Inside the palace, more grandeur, but on a much bigger scale – because of course, this was the palace used to impress for guests!  The entrance vestibule begins the opulence, lined with marble walls and statues.  But the best might just be the Grotto Hall with 250,000 seashells and mollusk shells as decoration. It is absolutely amazing – and for its time, almost unheard of to build a grotto inside a palace. And even though amazing at the time it was created, successive rulers kept adding to the Grotto because it wasn’t “grand enough for them.”  Too much!

On we go through more and more lavishly decorated rooms:  The Marble Gallery, inspired by the French halls of mirrors and used as a dining room; the Tamerlan Room, the first antechamber of the Lower Prince’s quarters, named for the massive painting here; the Small Bedchamber, used for resting during the day, and where Frederick III died in 1888; The writing cabinet, (that looks more like a large sitting room) which every bedchamber included in a royal apartment; The Room with Galloon Decoration, with walls covered in red woven silk fabric and the aforenamed for the silver threaded decorative bands on the silk called galloons.

And on and on it goes!  Seriously, our minds are just spinning – the Lower Concert Room with the dining table set amongst the huge paintings of mythological love scenes; The Oval Closet with the elaborately decorated dome ceiling and wood inlay floor; another Writing Cabinet; the master bedroom of the Lower Prince Quarters, with those ridiculously small beds.

And that was just the lower level!  Now we ascend the Grand Staircase to the upper level for more gold and luxurious décor!

First though, a modern addition:  The Imperial bathroom with a huge bathtub surrounded by porcelain tiles; then back to more original rooms – another writing cabinet, the Large Bedchamber of the Upper Princes’ Quarters, used as the Imperial couple’s bedroom in the 19^th century; The Hunting Chamber, so named for the decoration motif (even the furniture have hounds’ heads at the end of the arms); The Green Damask room, used as a salon (with a beautiful candleholder on the mantel piece); The small bedchamber with the portrait of Catherine the Great; and then another writing cabinet.

Phew.  Almost to the end – just nuts the sheer size and well, opulent decadence that is found here!  And then, we enter the Marble Hall.  Ha. We thought the rest was gold-leaf over-the-top!  Simply a massive room (used as a ceremonial space with musicians who sat on the balcony up above) with gorgeous inlaid marble floors and walls, gold bas-relief ceiling decorations, ceiling frieze and chandeliers. All 6500 square feet of it. 

And while totally crazily gorgeous – the back story is probably the most interesting as the Marble Hall is directly over the Grotto which was designed not to include any load-bearing pillars.  The Marble Hall floor alone weighs 90 tons and is built on a wood frame – meaning when water seeped through the floor after cleaning…well you can imagine.  While worked on frequently, the wood rot continued to spread for 2 ½ Centuries until 2013 when the hall was closed and repaired for, hopefully, the final time.  It took 3 years to correct, and now the hall is open again, regaling visitors with its glory. 

The last 2 rooms on the tour include the Upper Gallery where guests would gather to visit and dance (the wood floor providing a perfect dance floor) and the Upper Vestibule, the official entrance into the state rooms and Princes’ apartments. 

And with that, we complete our Neues Palace visit. Wow. That’s all we can say.  Back outside, we wander around the courtyard just trying to absorb all that we have seen, snapping our final photos before leaving through the Triumphal Gate and finding the bus stop that will take us back to the train station.

A little over an hour later, we are back in Berlin, stopping at Lidl for dinner supplies, then heading back to the hotel for the evening.  Before supping, we decide to have a drink in the Upside-Down bar – why not?  But before we do, the sweet bartender takes us on a tour of the “other side” of the building, the original Ermelerhaus.  Built in 1567, and renovated over the years, this part of the house was “registered as a monument of bourgeois architecture” in 1893.  During the War it was badly damaged, then restored by the GDR in the 1960s.  For some reason though, it was torn down in 1966 however monument conservators somehow managed to salvage many original features of the building. It was then rebuilt in 1969 with the original elements (doors, stair railings, cherubs, etc.) reinstalled in the new building, then in 1997 an extension was added for the hotel.  The rooms are now used for events, mostly weddings, and while totally reconstructed are still wonderful too wander through.  The decorations, the ceiling, the chandeliers?  They all remind us of Sanssouci!  You can absolutely see why the building would draw wedding parties – a great place to get married and have your reception.  (Plus love the balcony view down to the bar!)

Touring and drinks done, we head back to our room for dinner – Kartofel-salat!  Yay!  With Ham and Gouda sandwiches. The perfect meal to end our very fun Palace exploration day.