Nights 17 & 18: Leipzig

Leipzig. Home to our favorite J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, many abandoned buildings, a huge university and gorgeously gigantic central station, and the Leipziger Lerche, which is a delectable little tarte filled with marzipan, nuts, and strawberry jam. It was also my first real visit to former East Germany (after Berlin) and it has a pretty awesome name.


My next hosts, a wonderful piano teacher and her totally hip almost-out-of-high-school daughter, weren't going to be home until the evening, so I took my time leaving Hamburg and arrived in Leipzig around 8pm. I took the tram to their apartment and they welcomed me in with tea and an excellent dinner of fresh rolls, salad, and deliciously cooked endives (I believe that's the English name). We were all pretty tired, so didn't stay up too late chit-chatting.

There were a lot of recitals that weekend at the music school where my host taught. She invited me to come along the next morning, so I went into the city with her and listened to some excellently performed woodwind-piano duos from people who all looked younger than myself. I'd been loaned a house key and map, so peaced out at the break and went exploring around the city.

Thanks to good ol' WWII, not much of old Leipzig had survived. Some places had been restored, but there was a lot of newer looking architecture. There was also a lot under construction. They're building a big tunnel underneath the city itself, so roadwork was pretty unavoidable. I wandered accordingly, but didn't find myself photographing much. It was an unfortunate day to be out considering the intense grayness, cold wind, and everything being closed on Sunday, but I tried to make the best out of it. There's some Goethe in the background of this photo.


Like I said before, Leipzig is pretty proud of Mendelssohn and Bach. This statue of F.M.B. was in front of the Thomaskirche where Bach played organ for years. This is actually a replica of the first statue which was purposely destroyed by the Nazi regime. Apparently they didn't like his Jewish roots.

I then went inside the Thomaskirche where Bach did his thing. There were a couple little exhibits inside about his life and time there and the church has weekly Motetten concerts featuring the master's works. If I understood it correctly, he's also buried inside.

I wanted to visit the Bach museum next door, but it was closed for renovations. Instead, I wandered through some of Leipzig's many shopping passages that the city is known for. Like I said, everything was closed. However, there was no cold wind inside.


Next I wandered over to the Mendelssohn house on the other side of the city to try my luck with him. Success! It was there that he lived the last few years of his life, worked on Elijah (and other things), and died of a heart attack at the young age of 38. Unlike the Mozart museum, they actually still had a good number of his things. I learned many interesting facts inside, such as that he was born in Hamburg, spent a lot of time with Goethe, and was also a talented painter throughout his whole life. They had many of his watercolors on display. (No photography allowed.)

I left with the arrival of a very loud American tour group, which reminds me - I had a fun encounter at the central station earlier that day when I was buying my ticket to Dresden. I was waiting on a guy a couple years older than myself at the ticket machine while he pressed buttons and stared blankly, then turned to me frustratedly and said something like, "Gah, do you know how this works?" in very American English. He about kissed the ground when he soon found out I was also American and could speak German. Fate! Long story short, I helped him buy his ticket to Berlin and we went our separate ways. Those few minutes made me feel awesome. Too bad I completely forgot to ask him what his name was.


I took the tram back again when I was cold and done with walking for the day. Riding it in the daylight, I was able to see all the empty and abandoned buildings that had been invisible at night. It was a very different image from what I'd seen downtown and they made all the poshness seem like a façade. It was sad.

That evening, I helped bake some yummy spinach-raisin pockets for dinner, after which I asked my host about her Germanness. She talked a lot about freedom being important and used the word "Freiheit" repeatedly - how special it was to be able to drive to Köln if she wanted, or really to go anywhere. She'd grown up in Leipzig during the DDR time and hadn't known this freedom until the reunification. I wanted to ask more questions, but felt like it was a sensitive topic to her and she didn't offer any more information. Too bad.

I had a lot of fun exploring their beautiful apartment during my stay there. There were lots of pretty colors and nifty trinkets hiding in corners.

I had to wake up super early the next morning because my host had to practice on the piano in the music room where I was sleeping. When finished, she drove me into the city and we said goodbye, after which I poked around a little more before catching my train to Dresden. A good visit, and that was that.