Lilac time

It's a shame that scent cannot yet be transmitted over the Net. It's overpowering!

Colourful decorations

There are a lot of such decorations to be seen in Leipzig. The designs are colourful and add something to the scene but I don't care for them.

The spoon family

This rather charming neon sign was recently renovated at great cost. the building behind is a ruin and unfortunately the graffiti mob don't always appreciate art.

The Uni Tower

The university used to use this tall building. Many people still like to nickname it the "wisdom tooth". It is designed to remind us of an open book. This is classic DDR architecture!

Leipzig closed for marathon

Yesterday we had a marathon. Lots of streets barricaded of course but NO useful diversion signs! Hundreds of cars stuck inside looking for a way out - wasting petrol, creating CO2 for nothing. In fact there is a bridge but it wasn't indicated and we have great stretches of park and green areas that easily could but incorporated into a run. Only a little imagination is needed

Rivers in Leipzig

We don't have a major river in our town but there are lots and lots of smaller ones which were covered over in the last century. Now some are being opened up again. Their courses are often marked out by signs such as this one.
Incidentally Leipzig is supposed to have more bridges than Venice!

The old Town Hall

These days there is also the "new" Town Hall so this one house the Town History Museum. It was built in very few months in 1556/7.
Perhaps because of the "golden ratio" of its proportions or perhaps because it isn't dominant it is a pleasant centre to the town. There are shops and a restaurant under the covered walkway that you see under the arches.

Fairy tale fountain

This is about aone hundred yards from St Thomas Church. It depicts various fairy tales and its a test of your knowledge to guess which ones.

Nibelungen Ring

I took this photo from a building site hoarding. It shows an estate built from 1929 to 1930 by architect Hubert Ritter. This link takes you to Google Maps http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

fountain detail

This is just part of the Mende fountain in front of the Gewandhaus, was inspired by Bernini's fountain on Piazza Navona in Rome. It was paid for by the estate of a Leipzig citizen, Marianne Pauline Mende in 1886. It's the only really old part of the square that is left.

older Leipzig

Work has started on the next stage of surrounding the Art Museum with smaller more human buildings. First of course the buried foundations of old cellars need to be investigated and dug out.

childhood dream dog

wow!

childhood dream car

wow!

arcades and passages

Although we have very acceptable North European weather it is often very nice to be able to enjoy walking through and shopping in the many arcades that characterise Leipzig's shopping scene. Some are famous, others have some artistic sights, and some just offer a way to the next major street. The range of shops is not too heavily dominated by "chain stores" which make so many cities just a copy of each other. The city centre is almost completely free of traffic.

"in and out the dusty bluebells"

St Thomas'

This is perhaps the major tourist magnet in Leipzig. It's where Bach played when he was Cantor of the Thomasschule, which is still famous for it's boys choir.

fiat

people often use the main square as a display place and yesterday thi slovely old Fiat was there. I was rather taken by the door handles and the forward opening rear passenger doors.

good morning!

we shall be needing this

At last the weather is warm and sunny, it feels like spring at last.

not all our trains are this old!

This lovingly restored engine resides at our main station. There are also a couple of other historic trains to be seen. A happy small excursion for children (small and big).

yellow

This shows what happens when the state grants a private monopoly. When we buy anything we pay to have the packaging etc removed at no extra cost, but the company that do this dictate the volume that they will take (30 litres per family per week) and refuse to issue more bins and wobetide if the rubbish is not correctly sorted. Then they take nothing! All decided on our behalf by people in government who have no idea of the consequences of their decisions.
Two thoughts: machines sort better than humans; a parphrased quote from "the flowers of the Koran" - the more rubbish you can see on the streets , the poorer the land.