I’m quite the lucky boy.

I mean, sure, I could have probably bought the train ticket and somehow found my way around the neighboring city, guidebook in hand, taking it all in, but as luck would have it, a friend offered to take me there in her car. On the autobahn. Which was all the rage when I was 12.

‘There’s NO SPEED LIMIT! You can go as FAST AS YOU WANT!’ – sad that this was the extent of my European knowledge.

As it turned out, there was a speed limit, but who would want to drive fast past the old racetrack and under the previous checkpoints? Ignore a silent tribute to Babelsberg, the breeding ground for one of the all-time greatest films, Metropolis?

Not me.

About 40 minutes later we pulled into Potsdam. Walked the acres and acres of ‘Sanssouci’ - ‘without worries’. Took in the castles and (still functioning) windmills. Yellow houses arm-in-arm with mute streams. And sausages. So many sausages.

‘Are you in a rush?’ she asked through her grey and red scarf.

‘No. Why?’

‘Then why don’t you sit down to smoke?’

Good point.

I can go as fast as I want.