2020. Corona. Travelling is a different game. Yet our Fernweh acted up too often. So we arranged a train trip to Germany and Austria. Specifically to Leipzig in Saxony, several spots in Bavaria and returning home with ÖBB‘s Nightjet from Innsbruck in Tyrol to Brussels in Belgium.

Leipzig was our first stop. Situated in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) of East Germany, some features were new to us. Large boulevards, the Ampelmännchen and Ampelmädchen, people smoking, young people, handsome young men, men in sweatpants, mostly Caucasian people…

We had 1.5 day in Leipzig. The first day we mostly walked the city centre with its Altstadt or Old Town. We also explored Leipzig Hauptbahnhof and Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof.

We wanted to start the second day with the Gedenkstätte Museum in der „Runden Ecke“ of ‘Stasi Museum‘. But due to corona it was only open on weekends. Corona being an excuse for everything will turn out to be an annoying feature this trip. 

So we went to the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum, Leipzig’s GDR museum.

Afterwards we visited the Stadtgeschichtlichen Museum Leipzig, the city history museum. On the video you also see and hear youth protesting for climate positive action. That museum turned out to be far more interesting than expected. So consider visiting it.

Napoleon

As we had time afterwards, we took a tram to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal or Monument to the Battle of the Nations. A monumental structure commemorating the 1813 Battle of Leipzig between Emperor Napoleon‘s France and his allies Baden, the Duchy of Warsaw, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Naples on one side and Austria, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Prussia, Russia and Sweden. Saxony and Württenberg switched sides. 

The monument was completed in 1913, at the height of power for the German Empire. 

Leipzig was an interesting first stop. Will we go back? We feel we have seen what’s there to see. Probably we’re wrong.