GERMANY

Germany knows how to celebrate Christmas. The Christmas markets here are some of the best I have ever seen. Walking the streets of Leipzig the smell of cinnamon tempts and delights the senses.  Aware cinnamon is a smell that attracts buyers, just a few years back I found out it is also a good mood educing aroma. It certainly worked on me. I was feeling happy and walking around with a big smile on my face. The smell of cinnamon emanating from all kinds of baked goods was tempting, but in the end it was the cinnamon in the wine that won. I had walked around for too long wearing just a sweater, while everyone else had thick jackets on, and I started feeling  cold. A great excuse for a glass of hot Glühwein. I suspect my smile grew even larger as the sweet aromatic wine warmed me up. Just a few days before my friends and I had walked all over the streets of Leipzig in search of a cake for one of our colleague’s birthday. It was not an easy task, as people here normally order birthday cakes ahead of time. Yet, we succeeded after searching the entire downtown area, including the mall in the train station. We enjoyed the walk, the company, and took pictures together. This time I am alone wandering the streets. Alone in the crowds. Colorful Christmas ornaments, souvenirs, wool and leather clothes, gloves and socks are everywhere along with all kinds of foods and drinks. I also came across live music and it was really good! The guys playing the instruments must be professionals. I was wondering what orchestra they might be a part of.  Well, Leipzig is the city of Bach, after all. Regretfully I had to leave the city before Christmas Day but I hope to return soon. In any-case, I already got my chocolate shopping done.  Just in case!  

Leipzig, located in northeast Germany makes for a pleasant walkabout with a contrasting architecture of multiple eras quite prevalent. Structures from the very modern, the historical, WWII destruction, and the drab communist era blend together right next to one another in some places. Another contrast: Parts of the city are very clean, yet at the same time covered with graffiti. Before leaving Arad for Leipzig, a German-resident friend mentioned it would be a city of interesting contrast worth seeing. He stated we would notice contemporary and historical buildings full of everyday activity. Yet the town would be dotted with communist era buildings boarded up and/or simply vacant, as if from a dark memory nobody wanted to touch. Additionally, he told us in many cases there is long standing confusion over who owns them, who could/ should be entitled to use them, in addition to the distaste towards them as representatives of the oppression and hardship imposed on people. Leipzig’s train station is a promenade mall in itself worth seeing, full of restaurants, stores, two grocery stores and several food stands – not a bad place to have a layover if traveling by train. Additionally, Leipzig main train station is located in the perfect spot. Walk right out the front and into a contrasting “modern historical” district made up of older and newer buildings amid stone laid streets. The museum dedicated to 27 year Leipzig resident Johann Sebastian Bach is located within this district (Entrance to the Bach Museum at the time was only 2 euro). There are also tributes to the famous German composer Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. From the front of the Leipzig train station, crossing the tracks and street to walk the city plaza there is a large, abandoned building to the right. Square with seemingly no style compared to the older German buildings around it, this graffiti covered communist era building somehow sort of blends in. Or, maybe it does not and your eyes are simply drawn to the more ornate buildings and stone streets, so it goes unnoticed? Maybe a lifetime Leipzig resident would have a different view on it. We stayed at the Penta Hotel, a short walk in a different direction, which also took us past a few structures of the “East Germany” era, crumbling and neglected yet surrounded by offices and shops of all sorts. Enter the Leipzig town plaza from a few blocks away along the main street, and you cross through a large plaza with a museum, neighboring the very contemporary looking, uniquely styled glass Leipzig University building (founded 1409, one of the oldest universities in the world). Walking within the town plaza one can find anything from a Starbucks to a locally owned café or pub, restaurants of many ethnic styles to bratwurst carts, or a food truck / farmers market section with meats, cheeses, pastries, fruits and vegetables and fresh breads. Bring an appetite. Bring a camera. If looking to sample German biers while in Leipzig, Michael felt obliged to review a few from the selection  on Penta’s menu: “Kostritzer Schwarzbier (two dots over the o)- Dark beer from nearby region, draft, good. Don’t ask me to pronounce it. Maybe after I have had a few.” “Rothaus Tannenzapfle (2 dots over the a in the second word)- Pilsner from the Black Forest region. Also good. Don’t ask me to pronounce this one either, no matter how many I have.” More photos from Leipzig (click to enlarge, again for full screen): Note: Leipzig is about a 4 hour ride from Frankfurt – nearly the same duration via train or bus. Though not readily advertised with somewhat of a cumbersome web site, there is a bus that leaves from a stop next to the park across from the wireless store just a short distance from the train station. The price is considerably less, they serve coffee and tea, makes a stop half way, and arrives at the Frankfurt main train station.