For those of you who gave me some ideas for outings on a trip to Leipzig a few months ago:
A friend and I spent 5 days in Leipzig in early June, staying in an Airbnb house outside the centre because we had a hard time finding reasonably priced accommodation in the centre. On arrival in early afternoon, and a walk around the old city, I did wonder how to fill such a long time there, but in fact, it's a place that grows on you, once you start to walk around and find interesting neighbourhoods.
We had really nice warm sunny weather, the linden trees were all in bloom so it smelled nice. It's a city with a huge amount of green areas, parks, water. Public transport is mostly trams, but it looked as though everybody rode a bicycle, so it was quiet. And Germans seem generally not too noisy, unlike southern Europeans (as I can attest living in southern France).
Leipzig is a city of books & publishing, so lots of bookshops. We also visited the national German archives, part of which were moved to W Germany after 1945. The university is in the city centre and is being renovated -- some interesting architecture and installations. The architecture of the public buildings in the old centre is not to my taste -- rather monumental and heavy, especially that of the late 19th c. But when you start to look up, there are lots of little details. And the city is known for its many passages between streets, filled with shops or cafés. And we also found areas with bars and cafés where it was nice to sit, people watch and drink beer, which is good and cheap.
Leipzig also being the city where Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor for 27 years, we went to a concert in one of the churches where he had worked. Also visited his other church, which was also the starting point for the peaceful anti-government demonstrations in early 1989, partly leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall. We also visited the Stasi museum in its old headquarters. It was interesting, but would have been more so if my knowledge of German had been better.
We went on a 24-hour trip to Erfurt, just over an hour away by train. Very carefully restored medieval town -- but so perfect that we began to look for some graffitti to believe it's real! Quite a lot of tourists, but all German. We stayed in a hostel that was a converted police station. Empty because of this time of year.
And the visit ended with the Wave Goth Treffen, which we hadn't been aware of when we decided to go to Leipzig (hence the accommodation problems). Quite a picturesque event, with thousands of people of all ages, dressed in black or in dark costumes. Friendly and polite and posing willingly for photographs. We didn't go to any of the concerts though.
All in all, we had a good time, people were friendly (although not the fake "have a nice day" kind of attitude), many spoke English, prices very reasonable for food and drink.
