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!