Charlottenburg Palace and Stadium Sights

Today is my last day in Berlin and it was time to head to the outskirts of the city center.

Here on the outskirts of the city, my friend and I wandered back to the 17th and 18th century.  The Charlottenburg Palace was constructed as a summer palace for Queen Sophia Charlotte of the Prussian Kingdom.  It was built outside of the city to get away from the politics and bustle of city life.  Built in the French style and modeled after Versailles, the palace is situated on vast grounds that include a French and English style garden.  Although, the majority of the palace was destroyed in WWII, extensive renovations have restored the palace to as close as possible to its original form.  The most memorable parts of this palace are its half glass wall rotunda, the China Room, and it's personal church.  The glass rotunda has large windows that look out into the French designed gardens and has mirrors on the rotunda interior that reflect the exterior landscape and give the illusion of being in an open air rotunda.  Another significant portion of the palace is the China Room.  Queen Sophia loved to collect Chinaware and commissioned a room to be built for a palace extension to house this vast collection.  Unfortunately, she died before seeing the completion of the room, but according to her wishes the over 2000 piece collection became housed in the China Room.  The personal church is located adjacent to the China Room and against the teachings of the church is ornately decorated.  The church reflects Queen Sophia's interest in the arts.  (Lack of interior pictures was due to strict no photography policy)

The front entrance of the Charlottenburg Palace!

After wandering through the plethora of palace rooms, my friend and I walked through the palace gardens.  The gardens were built in a typical French style, but parts were converted to the English style.  Prominent sites include a personal harbor, a watchtower, and a mausoleum.

After seeing my friend off to the bus station, I still had time to visit the Berlin Stadium.  The stadium hosted three Olympic Games and hosts the championship for the Bundas League (the German country soccer tournament).

It was eerie to wander the grounds of the Stadium that was host to Olympic Games under the Third Reich.

After touring the Olympic Stadium it was time to head back and get ready for the trip to Prague.