wakey-wakey!

I am continually impressed by the number of small reliefs that decorate so many older buildings here.
This one on the old town hall seems to be a night-watchman or maybe the chap that acted as an alarm clock for or ancestors. His mate was probably not so welcome.

ravens outside

During the winter months we experience a gathering of birds like Hitchkock never saw on a daily basis. These are seed crows that overnight in parks and the zoo where it's a little warmer. They ssemble just before dawn and then just before we see the sunrise they fly up into the sun at a height of maybe 100 meters.
below is a small film of them.

the tunnel

Leipzig is getting a tunnel!
It may qualify as the world's shortest undergroung railway, but it has been a long-standing dream to allow trains to pass through the city rather than making a long (at least 10 minutes) detour round the city centre and having to enter and reverse out of the terminus, and the money was available!
We are all greatly inconvenienced by the tunnelling but it is technologically interesting. The Old Market Square will also get a station and the construction site is fenced of with a series of interesting photos (more soon).
This one shows a station where a historic arch was in the way, so it has been slid (is that the past participle of slide) to one side and will later be slided (no I prefer slid) back to it original position.

market day

Tuesdays and Fridays we have a food market and if the Old Market Square is not in use for another purpose it takes place here right in the town centre.

plattenbau!

I don't think there can be a town in Europe which doesn't have large blocks of "cheap" flats that are destined to be seen as "social housing".
Here they are now either renovated to a high standard and much desired or they have been or will be demolished.
Leipzig is full of houses built before WW1 and which are under a conservation order. They were mostly built in long terraces which cut off the view into their gardens, so this block opposite our zoo with the zoo carpark in front of it makes a pleasant open space.
What is irritating is that the other half of Germans often assume that we have only such blocks of flats and that they are all awful.

no money isn't always bad

This is the "Blechbüchse" or tinbox. Behind this facade is an older buildung that was badly damaged in the war. The original facade was not thought worthy of reconstruction (was that cost or ideology?). Now there are further plans and the popular facade will probably be kept in the new design, or maybe not! Suddenly money is a problem so we can be glad that nothing will change too quickly.
Sorry no post yesterday, it was a "computer-free day" for me.

fly away

and yet more snow! I want to fly away but can no more do so than these fine birds.

Cafe Riquet

This gem of a cafe is exactly what I expect wgen I think of Viennese cafe culture. The best is that it was recently given a polish so that the original shines through. Incidentally they dont ask if you want to drink a bucketful of coffee.
http://www.riquethaus.de/

pongoland

This dramatic roof belongs to "pongoland". And because it's the monkey house in the zoo, it does.
Actually it's full of different sorts of primates who live in relatively natural surroundings (no cages). Sometimes I wonder what they think about the masses who plaster their noses to the windows in their homes. They are intensively studied by the folks at the Max Planck Institute who often report new delevolpments in their understanding of the animals.

Fontane

Yet another of whom we are proud to have had living in our city. He worked in this dispensing chemist and lived in this house for a while. Later he wrote "Effie Briest" which has just been re-filmed.

Tooth of Wisdom

The tower used to be part of the uni hence the name Weisheitszahn, but now its used as offices
Actually I took the photo cos of the light! In the snow (again- still) the open space around the inner city is splendid.

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

Shelley.
Of course it's a cliche but it's a joy too.

goethe

and here he is.

Goethe's Faust is set in Auerbach's Cellar in the arcade opposite the old town hall. This statue depicts the moment when Mephisto casts his spell.

A new department store features this atrium with a fountain in it. At specified times there is a musical display which is very watchable.

A gasometer

So what can you do with an obsolete gasometer? This one is now in successful use as a panorama. When you stand on the central viewing platform inside you are surrounded by a panorama picture that is displayed on the circular wall. The first was a depiction of the Himalayas, then we had ancient Rome and soon the next will be the rain forest. Each exhibition lasts for a couple of years so there is plenty of time to visit and it is worthwhile.

Fetching water.

She's tucked in a corner opposite the Concert Hall. I find her rather fetching.

Museum of Art

This is a very pleasant space for a coffee. Unfortunately the outside of the building is monsterous and has been made worse by the addition of a translucent glass shell. There are long term plans to hide it behind smaller buildings on each corner but at present financing them is difficult.

Numbers

This is the Faculty of Chemistry and Mineralogy, Leipzig University.

Wagner

The house where he was born and lived for his first year has long gone. It's third replacement is now being organised.

ufo?

Actually its a small hotel near the centre. I like a bit of successful modernarchitecture in between the older buildings.

Bismarck Tower

The tower was finally finished just after WW1 started. It's one of 23 in Saxony , 146 in Germany and there are or were another 100 or so in the rest of the world, that were erected by his admirers.

graffiti

It's a real menace here, any available surface is used and mostly it's crap, often however real artists display their talent and these are often commissioned to paint a wall like this one in Schkeuditz as a protection against the vandals.

Volkerschlachtdenkmal

History was always written by the victors: This huge edifice was erected just before the First World War to comemorate the defeat of Napoleon at Leipzig on 18th Oct 1813.
Here in Saxony we were on Napoleon's side.

Happy 200th Birthday Mendelssohn

His importance to Leipzig is even today not so well appreciated as it should be. As well as his own work he is recognised as the key factor in reviving public interest in the works of many older composers such as Bach and schubert among others. This is one of very few memorials to him here. It's outside the house where he lived.

The Botanic Garden

Even in winter we love to visit the garden, and as you see, yesterday we were rewarded with this beautiful specimen through the glasshouse window.

the biggest station in Europe?

Of course it depends how you set the parameters, it has 25 platforms but the daily traffic isn't so heavy as many other stations. The glass roof is supposed to be bigger than the Millenium Dome in London and under the central platform in the picture is an excellent and very big two level shopping centre.