The trip home

We got up at 6am British time today so we could have breakfast, say our goodbyes and get back to Malaga airport in time to return the hire car and drop out bags off at checkin.  We had an uneventful flight and once we'd got back to the car at Gatwick we were home around 4.30pm. 

It was a really nice holiday but coming back to work mid-week wit a day full of meetings to face is certainly not to be recommended!

Rain and a hangover

After a lovely week and a lovely evening with Bill and Anne on Sunday we awoke today to rain and we were also a bit hungover after a lot of drinking and putting the world to rights.  We did go into Algamitas in the evening to get a bit of shopping and visited a bar where I drank coke!  Not the most exciting day of our holiday but a nice rest ready for travel home tomorrow and a return to work on Wednesday.

A lovely walk to see the Bee-eater colonies, and meeting Bill & Anne

After lots of driving in recent days we decided to do a walk from the Cortijo today.  We followed walk five in Bill & Anne's guide to walks.  It was fairly straightforward and didn't involve any major or long climbs so it was good for me! We saw the nests of the Bee-eaters in some disused sand quarries but no bee-eaters as I suspect they have migrated for the winter by now.  The weather really is gorgeous for mid-November!

In the evening Bill and Anne arrived home so we went into Algamitas for a nice meal at Bar Galicia.  We sat up far too late and drank far too much once back at the Cortijo but it was great to catch up properly with Bill and Anne again.

Ubeda

Ubeda is only about 10km from Baeza which is partly why we made the long trip over two days.  After breakfast at the Hotel Campos de Baeza we did the short drive into Ubeda and parked in the old town.  Ubeda is a slightly larger town than Baeza, at about 35 thousand people.  We had a good wander around a lot of really interesting sights and even saw a covered market, that was looking like it was coming to the end of its day's trading.  We visited the Chapel of the Saviour, which had an amazing altarpiece and a fascinating organ.  A bonus visit that was not in the guide book was a free museum or archaeology which showed some important Iberian history.

We popped into a supermarket on the long journey back to Algámitas and picked up a few bits for dinner including some nice prawns and tuna.  I had a big struggle buying diesel as it appears the supermarket is quite happy to take my credit card for 41 Euros worth of food but when it comes to 20 Euros worth of fuel they insisted on seeing my passport which was of course buried in the boot!

Gordon is preparing dinner as I speak as I've driven him 500km in the last two days. We're having a nice prawn cocktail followed by Tuna Steaks and Spanish Asparagus.

Baeza

We drove about 250km today to get to Baeza, a town of about 18,000 people in the East of Andalucia.  We stopped for lunch at Andujar and had a really nice salad and some cold meats.

We had booked into an hotel, Campos de Baeza, as 500km in a day is too much!  It meant we had plenty of time to explore and could enjoy an evening meal free from worrying about not drinking or a long drive home.  It was a lovely four star hotel and was a bargain at only c. £60 for the night.

We visited most of the principal sites in Baeza and climbed the tower in the cathedral just before dusk.   The cathedral had some fascinating old items in it including music and clerical dress.  The audio guide was useful too.  Baeza is a really pretty old town and well worth a visit if you're in that part of Spain.

A trip to Setenil, Ronda la Vieja and Grazalema

We had a good lie-in this morning after lots of early starts and rather short nights.  We had breakfast at the house before leaving for a fairly short drive to go to Setenil, one of the villages called a Pueblo Blanco because of all the whitewashed houses.

We enjoyed a nice lunch in a little bar called "La Tasca" which was in a fascinating building set into a cave.  Setenil is famous for having lots of houses set into caves.  We saw quite a few of them and walked up to a couple of churches which unfortunately were not open.  I guess November is not peak tourist season!

After Setenil we drove to Ronda le Vieja where there are some interesting Roman ruins including a theatre from the 1st Century CE.

We followed that with a quick trip to Grazemala where we did a bit of shopping and had a quick drink in a bar before driving back to the Cortijo.  We had a nice dinner of soup, Lomo and Spanish hard cheese, washed down with some Cruzcampo beers.

As you can see in the pictures, the weather has been wonderful today, which is a real bonus for November.  The full moon this evening is also spectacular in this area where there is not much light pollution.

Travelling to Spain and settling in to the Cortijo

We had a very early start this morning to check in at Gatwick at 6am.  All went smoothly and we were on our flight on time after breakfast.  We arrived at Malaga around midday and went to collect the hire car after collecting our bags.  The car is a 1.6L diesel Hyundai i30.  It's very boring and wallowy but I guess it will do the job.  It seems very economical too with the gauge hardly having moved after a 110km drive.  The hire company did charge me 90 Euros for a full tank of Diesel though!

We got to Algámitas around 2.30pm to meet Nieves who runs Cortijo Rosario for Bill & Anne. Nieves made us very welcome and we got settled in easily.  We also had a bit of a snooze after such an early start.  Nieves very kindly made us a fire in the sitting room, which the dogs enjoyed too.  The temperature drops rather rapidly at this time of year after sunset (around 6pm).

Around 8pm we wandered into Algámitas and had a lovely tapas dinner and a few beers at Bar Galicia - one of our favourites.  It's nice to be back in Andalucía for the fourth time!

Bill and Anne are away at the moment and back at the weekend so we have a few days to ourselves before enjoying some time with them on Sunday - Tuesday.   It's very kind of them to give us the run of their lovely house.

The start of the trip to Andalucía

We've booked in 6 nights with Bill and Anne in Anadalucía because it's just after the announcements about civil service jobs so we wanted time out either way after the news.  The news was good so I'm pleased that we can spend the time relaxing rather than worrying.  I started the journey this evening by driving to the Best Western Hotel at Gatwick, arriving around 10pm.  Gordon came down on the train from work.  We had a quick beer and then went to bed ready for the 5am start tomorrow!

The sharp among you will realise I can't have taken the picture in this post as we didn't actually see the hotel in daylight!  It's a good deal though - £100 for one night's accommodation and 7 nights of parking onsite.  Given that two returns on the bus from Oxford would cost £56 I don't think it's a bad deal.  With a 7.40am flight it would have meant a 3am bus out of Oxford - hardly worth going to bed!

The ferry home

After a lovely breakfast at the Chateau this morning we made a fairly quick getaway for the 300 km drive to Calais.  All was going well until just before St Omer where we headr there was a bouchon on the motorway.  We were quite early so we diverted to St. Omer for lunch where I had another nice Andouilette.  We also bought some nice French cheeses at a local deli to enjoy at home.

There was a massive queue for passport control and ferry check-in (about 3km!) so we missed the 4pm ferry but we were put on the 4.30pm ferry so no great loss.  It was good to see the white cliffs of Dover in the low sun.  We got home, via Sainburys for some food, around 8pm.

The start of the journey home and a posh castle

We left the campsite in Ribeauvillé today, leaving behind the wonderful Storks that inhabit the area (Alsace is famous for them).

We drove about 420km to Etôges where we are spending our last night in France.   We are saying in a local Chateau which seems lovely so far.  It's nice to have a proper room and a proper bed after nearly three weeks of camping. 

We had a fantastic meal at the Chateau and a very good night's sleep.

Day trip to Strasbourg

This is our last full day of holiday in Alsace so we decided to visit Strasbourg.  We drove about 60km to get there and used a Park and Ride at Baggersee.  They are served by good trams right into the city centre.

Strasbourg is a big place so we couldn't really see everything in a day but we did manage to see the Cathedral and have a good walk around some of the other sights of the area using the Michelin guide vert walking tour suggestion.  We visited the Musée Alsacien and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary art.  We also climbed several hundred steps to get the the 66 metre high viewing platform at the Cathedral.

At the end of the afternoon we got the tram out to the European Parliament building and saw the European Court of Human Rights.

We got back to Ribeauvillé around 8.30pm and had a nice meal and some drinks in a local restaurant..

A walk up the hill, a visit to Riquewihr and a wine tasting!

We had an early start this morning so we could get the walking in before it got too hot.  We walked from the campsite through Ribeauvillé and then climbed up the hills, through vineyards, to the (remains of the) Chateau de St. Ulrich.  That was a steep and tiring climb.  Then we walked on to Monastery de Notre Dame de Dusenbach. That was quite a level walk.  Then we did quite a steep walk down back into Ribeauvillé and had some nice Crèpes for lunch with ham and cheese.

The next job of the day was to get a slow puncture on the car fixed (I've already fixed several on the airbed!).  That was quite quick and then we went to visit the very pretty (but rather over-run with tourists) nearby town of Riquewihr.

Following a short walk around that town we went to the wine cooperative in Ribeauvillé which has been supporting grape growers and wine makers in the town since 1895.  We saw an interesting exhibition and tasted some nice wines.

We popped into the local Leclerc on the way back to the campsite and picked up food to eat with the wines we had bought at the wine cooperative.  As I write this we just finished the bottle of sparking wine and are tucking into some nice steak haché with wild garlic.

A trip to Colmar and Dinner in Ribeauvillé

We decided to visit Colmar today as we were a  bit late getting up after a late return from Freiburg.  Colmar is the capital of the Haute Rhine département and quite a pretty place.  It includes the famous Unter Linden museum which we enjoyed visiting.  It includes the famous Issenheim Altarpiece as well as lots of other interesting art and historical objects from Colmar.

We enjoyed walking around Colmar and also visited the collegiate church of St. Martin.  We also visited the protestant church and the dominican church.  We saw a lovely covered market where I sampled some of the local Quiche Lorraine.

We came back to the campsite around 7pm and then walked into Ribeauvillé where we had a fairly traditional Alsatian dinner - Gordon had a local dish, choucroute with various sausages, which looked to me very like German Sauerkraut and Wurst!

Freiburg and visiting Rhodri and Sita

We drove about 60km from our campsite into Germany today, to visit Freiburg.  Germany's warmest City. It has almost as much Solar PV microgeneration installed as the whole of the UK!

We parked at the Hauptbanhof and walked into town.  We found a nice lunch of bauernspätzle which was perhaps a bit heavy and then visited the Münster  - a pretty big and impressive building.

We also visited St. Martin's church and tried to visit the Augustiner museum but it doesn't open on Mondays.  We finished our exploring with a walk South and then West along the river, crossing to the West of the railway and coming back to the Hauptbanhof from the West. 

Having spent the afternoon exploring we met Rhodri at the hauptbanhof at 7pm.  We went for a drink in a bar called schlappen (which Rhodri thought was like the Marsh Harrier!) and Sita joined us.  We went on then to find a Mexican restaurant where we had a nice meal although I must say there were no discernible chillies in it.  Germans don't really do hot and spicy in the way that we do.

Leaving Switzerland for Alsace

We left Penny and Rob's this morning after the obligatory group photo and drove through Switzerland via Bern and Basel up the Rhine Valley towards Colmar an on to Ribeauvillé, the site of our final campsite.  The drive was quite straightforward and not too far, at around 300km.  We were a bit early for the campsite so stopped for lunch in a town called Ostheim, which despite its name is actually in France, not Germany.  I am struck by how German Alsace feels but I guess that shouldn't be a surprise given its history.

We got to the campsite in good time and got the tent up up in time to walk the 10 minutes into Ribeauvillé, which is another picture-postcard town, if a bit full of tourists.   We had a light dinner of cured meats and cheeses in a wine bar while tasting some local wines and beers.

A trip into Lausanne and a walk around the lake

We were with Penny and Rob all day today and the weather was great.  In the morning Penny took us for a nice walk around Lausanne and its market. We returned to their house for lunch.  Lausanne is a very pretty City and we had a good walk around.  There was been a lot of new development in the last 10 years and an area with lots of old derelict warehouses now has them converted into trendy shops, wine bars, cinemas and so on.

We went for a walk near Lake Geneva in the afternoon with Penny and Daniel.  There is a beautiful beach around some parts of the lake and there was lots of people there enjoying the sun with barbecues and so on.  It's amazing how there is pretty much no litter in Switzerland.  I wish it was the same at home!

In the evening we had a barbecue back at Penny & Rob's.  Rob cooked lots of nice food rather expertly and it was nicely accompanied by some excellent salads.

Leaving the Ardèche for Switzerland

We packed up camp today and drove about 440km to Penny and Rob's.  We had a lovely dinner and it was nice to sleep in a proper bed!

A tour along the Cèze

Gordon did some more washing this morning and I had to fix a little leak in the airbed!  After that we drove to Bagnols sur Cèze for lunch at a nice restaurant called Dap’s and we had a wander around the pretty town. 

 

After lunch we went to La Roque sur Cèze, a real picture-postcard little village up a hill.  Cars are not allowed there so we had parked by the river at the bottom of the hill.  While there we walked along to the Cascades de Sautadet.  A part of the Ceze that a lot of people were enjoying as it was a really hot day.  There were some big rocks and some very choppy water flows.  Most people seemed to be ignoring the swimming ban.

After that stop we drove up to Les Concluses – another interesting site on the Ceze where there are huge natural holes in the river bed.  There is also a portaille where the sides of the valley almost meet.  We walked about 2km there in the incredibly hot weather.

On the way back to the campsite we got a bit of shopping and then came back to the campsite for a wash and then dinner at the snack bar.  Tomorrow is the trip to Switzerland to see my cousin Penny and her family.

A trip to Nîmes

Gordon did some washing this morning then we did a trip to Nimes. It's an interesting City and the highlights are the 2000-year-old Roman Temple the Maison Carée and the Roman Arena. We visited both.

We had lunch at a small restaurant in Nîmes called Le Napoleon.

We also visited the Jardins de la Fontaine in the north west corner of the City and climbed up the Tour Magne, an old Roman tower that is at the highest point of the City, in the Jardins de la Fontaine. It offered some spectacular views. We managed to see the outside of the cathedral at Nimes but it was closed by the time we got there.

We came back to the campsite and had chicken and chips at the snack bar with a few beers. Spotting a theme yet?

The Gorge d'Ardèche

We visited the Gorge D’Ardeche today.  This is a driving tour with Valons-pont-d’arc at one end and St. Martin d’Ardeche at the other.  We did the route in that order and stopped at some amazing belvederes (viewing points) seeing  some amazing views of the gorge including the natural Pont d’Arc.

After lunching in the car we visited the stunning natural caves – Aven D’Orgnac.  These caves are millions of years old but only discovered a few centuries ago.  We walked down hundreds of steps, stopping at 7 points to observe the incredible rock formations including many stalactites and stalagmites.  Thankfully there was a lift to bring us back up the 121 metres to the surface!

We rounded off the day with a wonderful dinner in Barjac at a little restaurant, followed by a couple of beers at the snack bar in our part of the campsite.

A visit to Orange

Today was a bit of a late start but then after breakfast we went to visit Orange. The highlight there is the ancient Roman theatre, that is one of the best preserved in the world. We had lunch at a restaurant called Le Pigalle and I enjoyed my first Andouillete of the holiday. There was an excellent audioguide to the theatre and I learned a lot about Roman entertainment and its curtailment by the arrival of the Christians. Some things never change! There is also an Arc de Triomphe in Orange that we visited. We returned after that to the campsite and enjoyed a pizza and a couple of beers in the campsite restaurant. I comprehensively thrashed Gordon in 3 games of Rumikub.

Moving on to the Ardèche

I managed to break a hose off the heater in the car this morning whilst checking the oil and topping up the screen wash. This of course meant I couldn't start the engine as coolant would have soon sprayed everywhere! I was very impressed with Europ Assistance who, after my call, sent someone within an hour who took me and the car back to his garage in Parsac (about 25km away) and did a temporary repair (bypassing the heater) that will last for the rest of the holiday.
We were supposed to have left Creuse before lunchtime but eventually managed to get everything packed up and left around 3.30pm. We had chosen a shorter but rather more mountainous and windy route which proved extremely hard work driving. We got to the next campsite, near Barjac, around 9pm, just in time to get the tent up as it was getting dark. We shared the remains of a bottle of wine and went to bed exhausted!

A very wet day

We woken by rain around 5am today and it carried on pretty much all day.  We went for a little drive and visited the Eglise St. Valerie (an abbey church) in Chambon Sur Voueize.

After eating lunch went on to Evaux les Bains.  We drove into Montlucon and had a bit a wander around in the rain including visiting a church there.  We got back to the campsite for 6.30pm to get ready to go out for a wonderful dinner at La Bonne Auberge in Nouzerines, about 10km away.  It was a truly wonderful dinner.  The best meal of the holiday so far and the best fillet steak I've had in ages!

A viewing tower and some big stones

We drove to Toulx Sainte Croix today where there is a viewing tower from which you can see 7 French Départements.  It was a but murky so I'm not sure we could but the views were good nonetheless.  We also walked quite a way to see an ancient lavoir (a public place set aside for the washing of clothes) that supposed to be being restored.  It looked more like a pile of mud to me!

After that we went and found some coffee at a café in trois fonds and then drive on to see Les Pierres de Jaunatre. Some pretty impressive natural stones in a beautiful setting.  We drove on to Betete after visiting the stones but failed to find the Abbey there.  We popped into the Boussac Carrefour on the way back to the campsite for a few bits and then I had another swim at the campsite.  We had dinner at the pizzeria in Boussac, which wasn't bad at all - if a little over-cheesed!

The sun has got his hat on!

A gorgeous morning today, Thursday.  We got up fairly early and had a nice breakfast at the campsite again.  Thursday is market day in Boussac so we went and had an explore.

Before leaving Boussac we also visited the Chateau de Boussac and had a fascinating tour.  It was in French and I think Gordon understood more than I did.  The Chateau was in the same family for quite a few years and then it became the seat of the smallest sub-prefecture in France.  It was an office of the Gendarmerie Nationale and was bought by the current owners in the 1960s.  They have installed a number of objects authentic to the time (although not from the Chateau) and a number of Aubusson tapestries.

At the market we had bought a huge cèpe mushroom for lunch which Gordon cooked with some parsley and garlic. We ate it with some of today's baguette.  It was delicious! We had a lazy afternoon around the campsite then had some pasta for dinner,

A wet day and a trip to see Wolves

We got up around 9am today and got some bread from the van that visits the campsite every day.  We had breakfast outside and I made some baguettes for lunch using some rilletes and tomatoes that we'd bought the day before.  Breakfast was fried boudin (like oniony black pudding), mushrooms and eggs.  It all tastes so much better cooked and eaten outdoors!

We drove to Guéret after breakfast and had lunch in the city centre.  It was a pretty rainy morning.  After a quick wander around rainy Guéret we drove the short distance to the Loups de Chabrieres wildlife sanctuary and saw some amazing wolves as well as tame and miniature deer  and other animals.  Feeding time at 4pm was really interesting and a bit of a frenzy!  The noise in the video is Gordon's camera in burst mode.  The weather had cleared up by the time we left.

We went back to the campsite for a quick wash (and I had a swim) then we went back into Boussac for dinner, having a really nice meal at the Restaurant du Centre.  On return to the campsite a couple of beers at the bar rounded off a nice day.  The sky was really clear and it always amazes me how many stars you can see from a non-light polluted rural campsite.

The drive to the Limousin and the first night camping

We had a quick wander around Rouen this morning, visiting the cathedral and buying a PAYG SIM for my smartphone so we can use data at a reasonable price while away (not for email, I might add!).  I did the first part of the drive which was quite hard work on not very major roads and driving through a few towns.  Gordon did a longer motorway drive after lunch and we eventually got to our campsite around 6pm, having stopped off for a few groceries and some petrol in Boussac.

We had a fairly average steak haché in the campsite restaurant while a huge thunderstorm started.  We were glad we had got the tent up before that.  The bar area was a bit like a giant kindergarten nightmare as there were so many kids in there, presumably hiding from the thunderstorm.  We went to bed around 10pm after being hounded off our table by a bunch of six-year-olds playing cards!  The rain was incredibly heavy but the tent managed to keep us largely dry.  The storm eased sometime after midnight and after that we slept quite well.

Start of the Summer Holiday 2011

This is another year of camping in France.  We start in the Limousin, move to the Ardeche, spend a couple of days in Lausanne with my cousin Penny and her family, and then spend our last five nights' camping in the Alsace area.

Today we left home around 10.30am to get to Dover for 1.40pm to check in for our 2.10pm ferry to Calais.  We dined in the on-board Langham's Brasserie (a welcome escape from screaming kids), getting into Calais around 4.30pm.

From Calais we drove around 140 miles to Rouen where we were booked into the Hotel D'Angleterre.  We went out for dinner and then had a quick drink in a bar before a fairly early night.

The journey home

We left the hotel around 10.30am and had a quick drive around some of the parks in Leipzig.  We got back to the airport around 11am after filling the car with fuel and I 'fessed up to the scrape on the front nearside wheel trim.  Avis accepted the report and have said they won't charge for the damage - which I think is entirely reasonable.

Dessau, Bauhaus, Meister Häuser, Wörlitz Park

This was our last full day in Sachsen.  We went first to Dessau to visit the Bahuaus - its second location - having seen its first location in Weimar a few days ago.  The building has been carefully restored and is really very spectacular.  There was a very interesting exhibition and we took a short walk to visit the Master's Houses (Meister Häuser) afterwards.

Next we went and found St Johaniskirche in Dessau as it is twinned with Emmanuel URC in Cambridge (where Gordon was brought up), and Marienkirche, also in Dessau.  Mariernkirche was left as a war memorial for most of the GDR times (1949-1989) but has now been restored to its former glory.

Following Dessau we had a lovely walk around Wörlitz Park where the weather was lovely.

We got back to the hotel around 7pm and had our last evening meal of the holiday at Bayerischer Banhof where we had a huge, hearty meal and were glad of a walk home to help it digest a bit!  We had a final nightcap in the naTo bar again.

Harz Mountains, Steam Train, Brocken, Walpurgis nacht.

Today was the main reason for having the hire car.  We made an early start to get to Werngirode for 10am to pick up the steam train up the Brocken.  The trip took 1.5 hrs to get to the top of the Brocken.

We visited the museum at the top and and had a walk around.  This was all closed to the public and a high-security GDR listening post until 1989.  After a bockwurst and a drink we got the train back down to Wenigerode, getting off one stop early so we could wander around Wengirode through Westentor.  We saw people dressed as witches and warlocks in celebration of Walpurgis nacht (a bit like halloween) where witches are meant to dance on the Brocken.

Follwing this we visited Thale in the car where there was a huge festival for Walpurgis Nacht happening.  The queues for the cable car to get to it were huge so we didn't bother!

We popped into Quedlinburg on the way home and took a few more pictures but found nowhere to have dinner so we drove back to our hotel to park the car and went out for dinner at La Toskana Italian restaurant just south of Südplatz.  We followed this with a few drinks at the bar at naTO.

Collecting the Hire Car and Sachsen Therme

Today was another restful day.  Breakfast at Lukas near Alexanderplatz and then collected the hire car.

We took the opportunity with the car to visit Sachsen Therme.  A water park with just about everything you can think you might want in a water park.  Puts our British Water Parks/Swimming Pools to shame!  I loved the system where you have an RFID disk that goes in your locker key to open the locker and then the RFID is used to charge for anything like drinks, solarium etc. and on your way our you have to pay off the RFID before you can use it to open the exit turnstile!

We spent most of the afternoon at the Therme and then followed a rest back at the hotel with a nice Spanish mixed tapas dinner at Pata Negra.

Lazy day around Leipzig

We decided to have a lie-in today after all those train trips and then had a lazy day around Leipzig.  We walked in along the Karl Liebnekht Strasse and first got to the Neues Rathaus (new town hall) where we took some pictures both inside and out.

Then we wandered into the town centre and visited the Town History Museum.  There was a lot of fascinating stuff and we were in the council chamber where Bach had signed the agreement to be Cantor at Thomaskirche.  We followed that trip with an ice cream and then went to Stadtisches Kaufhaus - the former cloth exchange - and took a few pictures.

Following a few drinks at Cafe Apart we went back to Südplatz and had dinner at Acapulco Mexican restaurant.

Weimar, Erfurt, meeting Christoph!

Another train day - this time to Weimar.

We started with a trip to the Wiemar national theatre which is where the Weimar Constitution was agreed in 1919.  That's where the term "Weimar Republic" came from.

Next was the Bauhaus museum that showed the start of the short-lived but very important school of design and architecture.  Bauhaus really lived in constant battle from the National Socialists (Nazis) and closed in 1933, only 14 years after its opening in 1919.

Following this we me our friend Christoph Schmidt, who had stayed with us to help with the genereal election in 2010.  We had lunch on his recommendation at Cafe Residenz and it was very good!

After lunch we had a walk around Park an der ilm.  and saw the Goethes Gartenhaus.

Christoph then drove us to Erfurt.  We saw the cathedral, the Kramerbrucke, and the Augustinerkloster.

We were able to get a direct train from Erfurt back to Leipzig at 9pm that took about 1hr and 50 mins.

Wittenberg and Luther

We got another train today to Wittenberg.   Wittenberg is sometimes called the Rome of protestantism as it is where Luther did a lot of his thinking and challenge to established theology. He particularly challenged the system of indulgences where people could effectively buy the right to be sinful.  We saw an excellent exhibition about this and much more at the Lutherhaus and its musuem.

We also saw the Schlosskirche, and the Stadtkirche.  Luther preached in both of these and legend says that he posted his famous 95 theses on the door of the Schlosskirche.

We finished the evening with a Curry in Leipzig.  Such things are always a bit sub-UK standard but this wasn't bad at all.

Day trip to Dresden

We went on the train today to Dresden and visited the Kreuzkirche, the Frauenkircke, the Hofkirche, the Zwinger and the Neustadt (new town) area.

The Frauenkirche is particularly interesting as its ruins were left as a WWII memorial by the GDR so restoration did not start until after the 1990 reunification.  Frauenkirche reopened in 2005.

The Zwinger was built as a pleasure palace for the Sachsen Royal Family and is still a pretty spectacular set of buildings and grounds today.

We had dinner in PlanWirtschaft on the recommendation of a friend who had been there before.

Easter Sunday - Thomaskirche, Bach Museum, Art Museum, Batle of the Nations memorial

Another early start today so we could go to the Easter Sunday service at Thomaskirche.  It was really busy and the service went on for a long time.  It included a Back Cantata, "The heavens laugh! The earth rejoices", written especially for Easter Sunday by J S Bach when he was cantor at Thomaskirche.

Following a long service, and communion, we went and found a cup of coffee and then went on to see the Bach Museum.  There is some fascinating stuff there including very recent (within 10 years) research findings of more hitherto unknown music and scores.  Much of this would never have been available had it not been for the fall of the GDR just 21 years ago.

We found some lunch at Restaurant Paulaner - it was rather more food than we expected but nice.

Next we visited the large art museum, the Museum der bildenden Künste.  It's an amazing building, with extremely high rooms.  There is quite a lot of uninteresting (to me) art there but also some impressive pieces.

On the basis that there is no rest for the wicked we next got tram 15 down to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, The Monument to the Battle of the Nations and specifically the battle of Leipzig in 1813.  It wasn't completed, however, until 1913.  It's the biggest monument in Europe and I have to say it's pretty ugly!

Churches, Stasi Muesum, Ballet!

A bit of a lie-in this morning but we just made hotel breakfast at about 9.50am.  Following that we went into the City and went and had a look around the Nikolaikirche to take some photos.  It has amazing architecture with pillars that look like palm trees!

Following that we went to see the Stasi Museum (the Museum in der Runden Ecke Gedenkstätte) which documents 40 years of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) and its deeply scary practices of monitor and control of people's lives.  I was amazed to seem some papers signed in 1989 (when I had just started University) by a person who was born in the same year as me!

We went to Pepperhouse for lunch and following that we went to Thomaskirche to take some pictures of the inside.  Then we had a rest at the hotel and in the evening went out to see the "Die Große Messe", an amazing Ballet at the Leipzig Opera House.  We followed this with a drink or two and a sausage for supper.

Good Friday service and Contemporary (GDR) history

We started our day with a very quick breakfast at a bakery and then went to Nikolaikirche for the 9.30am service which included the Shűtz Johannes-Passion.

Following that we had coffee and cake at a nice café and then we had a wander around Leipzig.  We went to see the contemporary history museum (Zeitgeschichtliches Forum) and learned a lot about the German Democratic Republic (GDR) 1949-1989 and how much it tried to control people lives and quash resistance and opposition.

Later we ate lunch at a little Italian place called Cafe Pascucci.  We shared a flammkuchen (like a pizza) and some salad.

We came back to the hotel fairly early in the afternoon for a rest.  In the evening we went and ate in a little restaurant close to the hotel called Lulu Lottenstein we ate fairly typical German fayre then went for a wander along Karl-Liebknecht Straße and finished up having a last drink in a bar called naTo.