Now I know this cold weather is an insult to everything we cherish in the month of May, but you must forget it's only 11°C and prize the light instead. The blossoms are still clinging to the trees, and isn't Saturday the perfect day for a grand day out?

Take the S-Bahn to Babelsberg station and walk north on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, stopping for tea-to-go along the way. Take a left at Grenzstraße and enter the neglected gate to the Park Babelsberg. You too might climb the hill and pause under the sycamores in the clearing, delighted to find such ample space for the taking. Keep the water to your left and follow paths and attractive vistas at will: the scenery conspires to lead you to the Kleines Schloß. It's a sweet restaurant with pretensions, and you, like me, might find the results mixed, but what luxury to sit with the water before you and the green lawn, and the willow bobbing in the wind, while the waiter shows himself to be attentive again.

From there, you might follow the coastline to the little bridge over Lankestraße, then head northwest, the water always at your left, as you walk past the Glienicker Brücke and up the quiet path that curves along the Schloß Glienicke. The path knits its way past an attractive Biergarten before bringing you to Pfaueninsel. There I boarded the 218 bus, pink-cheeked, and made my way home -- but that was in April. You might be tempted to take the ferry over to explore the Luise: Queen's Island World exhibition and Olafur Eliasson's Blind Pavillion, which I'm dying to see. If you go, will you tell me how it is?

Kleines Schloß, Park Babelsberg 9, Potsdam (map)
Opening hours here (I wouldn't dare try and summarize all this)
Tel. 49 0331 705156

Comments

[Vanessa]

Oh, I haven't been to Park Babelsberg or the kleines Schloss for years. Thanks for bringing back good memories and for reminding me I should really head over there soon. I've often dreamed of going to Peacock Island, it sounds so romantic. I promise to post about it if I I make it out there finally. Have a great weekend Sylee.

[Jo Spittler]

Did little S. come with you? I often wonder - is she with you on all your nice trips to cafés and places?

Jo
x

[Berlin Reified]

Vanessa, it is, except the peacock squawks can be a bit alarming. But nevertheless!

& Jo, not this time, but mostly, she's there, in the sling, in the stroller now, craning her neck around, piping "Tschüß!" to the hipster design shop owner, dozing off on the pavement as I browse. Invisible but there. (I never mentioned that I photographed, wrote and posted this entry -- http://www.berlinreified.com/2010/03/transcendent-apple-juice.html -- with her asleep on my shoulder.)