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.