In Potsdam, as in Paris, stone profiles play hide-and-seek between the trees. Broad gravel paths, verdant lawns hazed with weeds, and curlicued ironwork gates evoke a world more distant than the half-hour journey from Berlin might lead you to expect.

(My favorite thing: skip the hassle and bustle at Potsdam Hauptbahnhof. Stay on the regional train to the Park Sanssouci station. Alight with two or three others and make your way alone to the long avenue of trees leading to the Neues Palais.)

In Potsdam, I find figures amidst the scaffolding too. A flock of courtiers have been coralled between the two wings of the Neue Palais. The wind piping through the open metal rods that enclosed them made a haunting music too beautiful to believe. Summer's ending, do you feel it too?

Afterwards, on a whim, we climbed the many steps to the stately Drachenhaus. The cartoonish dragons decking the pagoda-like octogon will delight a small child. We liked the blue ceiling painted with stars very much. Look, the fried feta cube straight from the deep-freeze won't wow you: that's why the view of the ruined Belvedere in the distance is there.

New Palace, Potsdam (map)
Drachenhaus, Maulbeerallee 4a, Potsdam (map)