Day in Leipzig

Last Saturday, thanks again to the international student office, Maria and I joined a group of about 15-20 other students on a day trip to Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig is about 200km south and a little west of Berlin (if you like maps check out the new one at the bottom of the page!) and has ties to such famous names like Bach and Goethe, to name two. We took the ICE (InterCity Express) train and got there in just over an hour. So smooth and fast!

We started our day with a walking tour, and the sunny and warm weather was perfect. We saw the Thomaskirche, the church where Johannes Sebastian Bach worked as a Kantor and also as a teacher at the school. Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723 and is now buried in the Thomaskirche.

The Thomaskirche with a statue of Bach

The Bach window inside the Thomaskirche

The Nikolaikirche is bigger than the Thomaskirche and only about a two minute walk away. Actually everything in the Innenstadt or Altstadt (the heart of the city is very close together--it's not a very big city center with respect to size, although including the surrounding area it's much bigger. With respect to population it was the 4th biggest city in Germany in the 1930s, when the population was around 700,000. The population declined a little after WWII, and now is around 500,000. But back to the church: Bach also worked at the Nikolaikirche, and one thing I especially like about the Nikolaikirche was the pillars. They are pink at the base, then they are decorated with green leaves at the top so that they look like trees.

From the front of the church, looking back to the organ

The altar. You could actually walk up to it.

After a delicious lunch at the Napoleon Brauhaus, we visited the Völkerschlachtdenkmal. The Völkerschlachtdenkmal is a memorial for those who lost their lives in mid-October, 1813, when people in Leipzig stood up to Napoleon as he returned from his failed invasion of Russia. It is dedicated not only to the people of Leipzig who died in the battles, but to the people from both sides, because there were many Germans on Napoleon's side who had been conscripted into his army. It is a massive monument--at 91m tall it is the largest memorial in Europe. It is just stunning, how huge this monument is.

You just can't escape construction.

Our tour guide went over the history of the battles the monument commemorates and its construction (unfortunately in a very monotone voice) and then took us inside. There are three levels of the monument. We saw the crypt (which isn't actually a crypt but there is a wreath in the middle of the room in honor of those who died) and the first outdoor level about 57m up where you can walk through a very narrow path around the outside of the memorial. Don't panic, the path is narrow but the wall is a comfortable four feet tall so you are never afraid of falling out. Then we climbed many, many stairs to get to the very top, and the view was amazing. We could see the Leipzig city center directly in front of the monument, and then German villages and the countryside in all directions. I think the pictures say more than I can.

Looking out to the Leipzig downtown area

57m above the ground

The surrounding Leipzig area and the beautiful countryside from the top

After we came down we had free time to explore. Maria and I went back to the city center and visited a fascinating museum that seemed to cover everything about the German lifestyle from 1945 to at least 2006. Earlier we had seen the sign for Auerbachs Keller (which is famous for appearing in the first part of Goethe's Faust), so we went back to take pictures and a peak inside.

The statue is from the scene where Mephisto bewitches the students

Then we sat outside a restaurant and enjoyed some delicious ice cream (which is coming to be a staple of any good trip) before it was time to meet the group at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). One hour in the train, speeding through the German countryside, and we were back in Berlin!

mmmmmm, endlich Eis!

 Yesterday and today have been mostly work days. Some running, some Jazzercise, lots of reading and brainstorming paper ideas. I leave Wednesday for Dresden on a BCGS trip so I have to prepared for missing a couple class days. Normally missing class is a cause for celebration, but when classes only meet once a week you don't get very many of them, and I really like my Thursday class, so I'm actually bummed about missing it (you can say it: NERD. I know). I'm also running a 10k race with 15,000 other women on Saturday so let's all cross our fingers that I've stayed in good enough shape to finish with a decent time!