Lovely Leipzig

It's Saturday 17 October. The outside temperature in Dessau is in the region of 7 °C and Niel and I are on the 09:14 Regionale Express to Leipzig where we will be met by Arne and Sarah, two German medical students whom we met earlier this year whilst they were visiting Carla Taljard, a Boukunde friend of ours, in Pretoria. At the time, Arne had worked as a doctor in Cape Town for three and a half months as a part of his internship and Sarah was visiting after two months in India. They are both studying in Leipzig and when we told them that we were to study in Dessau later this year, they offered to meet up with us and show us around

By co-incidence, some of our classmates were taking the same train to Leipzig. Above is Valerio Giacomelli, an Italian student from Milan. He finished his bachelors degree in Milan and decided to finish at DIA because it is an international school

Monica Effendy and Mia Vinalita are both from Indonesia where they finished their bachelors after which they both worked in Singapore for two years. The lady to my left is lucky to be in our photo. I don't know what it is that she does. I guess she reads a lot of magazines. This one was about classical music. She must be a music teacher. She's a music teacher

I was beside myself with relief. Leipzig's station is about twenty four times the size of Dessau's and to convince us of the shopping possibilities, the clever architects had included an entire shopping mall below

After showing us Sarah's lovely flat and Niel turning green, Arne gave us a walking tour to the city centre. Leipzig is famous for printing and for this reason they have many libraries housing every German book printed in the last two hundred years

The buildings in the city are more or less all at the same height. Some are new, but it's practically impossible to distinguish them from those that have been renovated recently and we only knew the difference once Arne had pointed this out

The building with the black roof was by far my favourite building in the city. The roof is very interesting and quaint. It seems to belong in a fairy-tale. The construction happening to the front of the buildings is of an underground tunnel linking the two existing train stations

This is a new building and to my mind it is an interpretation of the previous building. Fitting then that this is one of Niel's favouites

This is the Jewish Memorial outside the Friedrich's kirche where Bach spent most of his life composing and performing. The rows of metal, presumably bronze, chairs are very pretty. Arne later told us that the public is not allowed to sit on the chairs, mostly because the old people complain

Good thing it was too wet for me to sit down...ooops!

Arne and Sarah are such a personable couple and were more than accomodating. We had a fantastic time with them

The size and classical architecture of the high court is very grand and impressive, but there is something amiable about the green copper roofs

Behind the court is the university of Leipzig's library. The steel entrance doors and gates are ornate with flower patterns that make the harsh steel appear delicate

It seems that grass landscapes are in fashion. This one was outside the court

One of the canals that run through the city with the high court to the right

In South Africa I've heard people speak of the packaged building materials in Europe and was pleasantly suprised when I came across some examples

Pre-cast concrete kerbs

As mentioned above, Johann Sebastiaan Bach spent most of his life working in the Friedrichkirche, above

Contemporary signage on the old chuch

The narrow streets between tall buildings with street cafe´s are very charming and the contemporary glass building above is particularly cool

The Messehaus am Markt is another of my favouites, especially with the view of the church in the background. Anre explained that the building was recently upgraded and that previously it was a typical vernacular building like the one adjacent

This intriguing sculpture, aptly named Step of the Century, was completed in the 1980's by the renowned East German artisit  Wolfgang Mattheuer and erected in one of the two main shopping streets of Leipzig in 1999. The dynamic striding character's right hand is extended in the Nazi salute while the left hand is clenched in a worker's fist and marked with a red band. The figure is half in military uniform and depicts the clash between fascism/Nazism on the one side and Leninism/Stalinism on the other

This is the highest tower in the city and it is supposed to look like a book as a representation of Leipzig's rich history of printing. We had coffee in the restaurant on the top floor, the twenty ninth, with a beautiful view of the city below. According to the restaurant, the view we had faces towards the South and therefore, Kapstadt. The other two views were towards the East, Tokio, and the West, New York.

Another favourite building.. this building is supposed to look like the former Pauliner church. Although this was the only church that was not damaged during the second world war, the church was demolished by the GDR regime after the war. In it's place, the university  commissioned this building by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat with the brief that the new university building should represent the old church

The construction seems very neat and is impressive

Back at the station and ready to go home, this purple '70's' bullet looked so cute that we both wanted a picture. Of coarse it's no longer used, and we took a conventional red train home.

Not surprising was the fact that the train back to Dessau was packed. No wonder the place is deserted over weekends

It's nice to be back, but I can't wait for next weekend's adventure.. we're going to Stuttgart!