TOP 5 MOMENTS IN LEIPZIG!!!

This week is not going to be as fascinating as some of the other posts I've had or as long, but this was a vacation, so it gets included in the Sunday post.  We went to Leipzig on a cold and rainy October day and the weather was a signifier of what was going to happen.  We maybe should have just stayed home. Something exciting about this trip was that it was the first time Yvonne came with us on one of our excursions.   The actual highlight of this trip for me was lunch at a really nice Irish pub, but we didn't take any pictures there, so it is not included in the Top 5 Moments.  So, here we go:

Picture 1: St. Nikolaikirche

Of all the churches I have seen in my time in Europe, which is not too many but still quite a few, this one had the most original interior except of course the Bone Church.  It is very light inside of it and the arches kinda look like palm leaves.  The pews are cream.  It was just very pretty.  Not spectacular or breathtaking, but pretty.

 Picture 2: Bach

 Johann Sebastian Bach worked his entire life in Leipzig in the St. Thomaskirche, and although we went twice, it was closed at both times.  Not the best at organizing on our part. However, this was a nice statue.

Picture 3: The DDR

 In this picture is a real piece of the Berlin wall.  It stands right in front of the Stasi Museum in Leipzig.  That museum was interesting, but all in German.  Though I can speak it decently, I cannot understand it enough to read plaques in a museum, so...a lot of the interesting stuff was lost on me.  I recognize that there was interesting information in there because Braden told me there was.  After this museum we went and had a lovely lunch.

Picture 4: The Town Hall

 Apparently Leipzig has one of the largest town halls in the world with over 600 rooms, so we went to check that out. It was indeed very large, but it was closed because it was Saturday.  So, we just went and saw it.  We then walked through the mall that was pretty big and worked our way back to the Hauptbahnhof (which you should all know my now means: Main Train Station).  That was when the trip got really interesting.  There was a huge crown in front of the doors to get into the Hbf and we didn't know why.  There were people in front of my wearing all black and the only thing I could hear them say was "Neo-nazi"...that is when I got scared.  I was in the lead, naturally, but I turned to Braden and said, "You're going first," and when he objected I responded, "I don't speak German."  I thought maybe they were checking tickets to make sure no one that wasn't supposed to be there got into the Hbf, Braden was also scared, though and made Yvonne, who has the best German, go first. She and her broken leg plowed through the crowd and the group of Polezei didn't give us any sideways glance, so that was good.  We then found out there are apparently a series of random protest planned throughout the city during that day.  We had seen a lot of police all day but hadn't thought anything of it.  We had assumed that it was just a futball match or something, but no, it was riots.  I guess both sides, right and left, were rioting and the black was the left.  We worked our way up to our train to Halle and then at the platform Braden was questioned by the Polezei, but he showed him the ticket and all was well.  Here is a picture of the Polezei in their helmets outside of our train.

There were Polezei in Halle, too.  Because we had to wait for passengers in Leipzig, our train was late in Halle and we had to wait an hour for the next train.  So, we explored the Halle Hbf and then hoped on our train and got back to Jena and went right to our rooms to relax.

Thanks Yvonne for coming with us, sorry your first trip with us wasn't super fun!

Next Sunday? Cologne  (Köln).