Sanssouci Palace is set in beautiful gardens. In fact there seem to be many palatial buildings in the vicinity (I'm sensing a theme here... many lakes, many palaces....), each one a rococo confection of pastels and gilt, cherubs and gargoyles. Wandering the lush and highly tended gardens, I start to understand what my history of the arts lecturer meant by "opulent" when we learned about this era. I keep expecting Louis XIV to pop out of a bush, even though this is a little after his time.
You may notice that I am sporting a very nice backpack in these photographs. I had admired my choir friend Bek's Kanken backpack some months ago and she had explained to me that such things could be procured online. On investigation, however, it emerged that Swedish backpack-makers Fjallraven no longer ship to Australia. I considered ordering online and getting the backpack sent to Claire in Germany so I could fetch it on arrival but, as you will see if you click on the link and convert into AUD, the backpacks are quite expensive and although I am a confident shopper IRL, I'm not such a great spender online. I like seeing what I am getting first. (Case in point - my green flamenco shoes. I thought I was getting a deep, moody bottle green. I landed up with a super-bright mint green. I've got used to them but, you know.)
Anyway. I decided that I would leave it to fate. If I came across the backpacks whilst in Europe, terrific, and if not, c'est la vie.
Cut to my first full day in Berlin and I'm making my way home from the Jewish museum when I notice a large shopping centre called Alexa. On the side of the shopping centre is a sign advertising The North Face. "Hmmm," I think. The North Face is a camping shop. Perhaps this shopping centre is the kind of place where a backpack of Swedish origins may be found.
I enter the shopping centre and begin systematically combing its arcades. Conveniently it is set up open plan, as shopping centres often are, so that one can view shops on many levels simultaneously. I can soon see the kind of shops that I think may sell the backpacks - similar to Australia's Glue Store or General Pants. I zero in and within minutes, minutes I tell you, I have located the backpacks AND they have the colour I liked chose when I did my online research.
A veritable shopping triumph.