Well we tried to go to Peter’s favorite bakery here, but they were closed. Boo. But we did get some delicious (and very fattening) “pudding pretzel” – ie a glazed pretzel with curd in the loops – from a supermarket, so all was well. Here, all the bottles have deposits on them that you can return in these futuristic-looking machines in the supermarkets, which really cuts down on plastic in the trash since each is worth 10-25 cents. I was lucky enough to spot one on our walk to breakfast so I win! Haha.
We then set out to tackle a big monument Peter had seen but never gone up to. Turns out it was the Monument of Nations, recognizing the war of 1812, and it was HUGE! It’s hard to describe how insanely large it was. There were four stone statues that were each easily two stories tall, plus several smaller ones below and quite a few adorning the top of the building itself. A lot of stained glass and many, many carved horses in the dome of the place. The elevator (which I recommend, as there are wayyy too many stairs otherwise) takes you up 34 m – so it says on the screen, which I thought was super novel! – to the very top. Well, or so we thought. At that point you can stay there and walk the perimeter of the subroof, which is a fantastic view on its own, or you can wait for the light above the single-passage stairs to turn green and head up to the very top of the building. At that point the sun even came out! So that was really cool. Peter wasn’t so happy with the tiny stairs, but it was really cool to see. A poster on one of the sublevels said they used to have choirs sing upstairs, which would have sounded crazy if you were on the bottom floor. A very impressive place, especially since we didn’t know anything about it heading in!
Conveniently, there was a big Hit grocery on the way back, so I picked up a bunch of energy drinks for Steve, in addition to marveling at the aisle section full of canned and/or jarred wursts. It just looked like a bunch of hotdogs orderly pointing one direction in a jar, so german! This was especially great for the miniwieners, which just looked like meat chaos in comparison. We spent enough time there, though, that we had run out of time a bit, so we dumped everything at Peter’s apartment before briskly walking to the Thomaskirche. This is a famous church because of Bach, mostly, and Peter had seen the boy’s choir there before and said it was neat. The church itself was impressive, and although there was no boy’s choir that day, we did get to hear some very accomplished opera and orchestra pieces. I hadn’t realized it was an actual church service, though, so…I guess that fulfills my quota for the year.
After we got our groceries and went back to change, it was time to head to the Auerbachs Keller for dinner. This is “the best known and second oldest restaurant in Leipzig. It was described in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust I, as the first place Mephistopheles takes Faust on their travels.” (so says Wikipedia). Unfortunately, although the interior was cool, it was basically an over-hyped German Bennigan’s. My main dish was fine but the Brussels sprouts and mushrooms on the side were the worst I’ve ever had. They did not get a tip for their ridiculous portion costs, either. We had to stop at a fancy chocolatier to get some (yummy) hot chocolate after, to wipe that taste out of our mouths. Sometimes you don’t get lucky with food, I guess!
It was finally time to pack, which sucked, but we had some raspberry booze from the day before to finish so that helped. I had a lot more space left than I anticipated, but I guess I brought a lot of things for Peter and didn’t buy a lot of souvenirs! We did some final cleanup and also re-conditioned Peter’s dress shoes, which were in need of some more warm wax finish after the winter months. Nothing like taking advantage of a free hair dryer in new and unusual ways!
We then set out to tackle a big monument Peter had seen but never gone up to. Turns out it was the Monument of Nations, recognizing the war of 1812, and it was HUGE! It’s hard to describe how insanely large it was. There were four stone statues that were each easily two stories tall, plus several smaller ones below and quite a few adorning the top of the building itself. A lot of stained glass and many, many carved horses in the dome of the place. The elevator (which I recommend, as there are wayyy too many stairs otherwise) takes you up 34 m – so it says on the screen, which I thought was super novel! – to the very top. Well, or so we thought. At that point you can stay there and walk the perimeter of the subroof, which is a fantastic view on its own, or you can wait for the light above the single-passage stairs to turn green and head up to the very top of the building. At that point the sun even came out! So that was really cool. Peter wasn’t so happy with the tiny stairs, but it was really cool to see. A poster on one of the sublevels said they used to have choirs sing upstairs, which would have sounded crazy if you were on the bottom floor. A very impressive place, especially since we didn’t know anything about it heading in!
Conveniently, there was a big Hit grocery on the way back, so I picked up a bunch of energy drinks for Steve, in addition to marveling at the aisle section full of canned and/or jarred wursts. It just looked like a bunch of hotdogs orderly pointing one direction in a jar, so german! This was especially great for the miniwieners, which just looked like meat chaos in comparison. We spent enough time there, though, that we had run out of time a bit, so we dumped everything at Peter’s apartment before briskly walking to the Thomaskirche. This is a famous church because of Bach, mostly, and Peter had seen the boy’s choir there before and said it was neat. The church itself was impressive, and although there was no boy’s choir that day, we did get to hear some very accomplished opera and orchestra pieces. I hadn’t realized it was an actual church service, though, so…I guess that fulfills my quota for the year.
After we got our groceries and went back to change, it was time to head to the Auerbachs Keller for dinner. This is “the best known and second oldest restaurant in Leipzig. It was described in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust I, as the first place Mephistopheles takes Faust on their travels.” (so says Wikipedia). Unfortunately, although the interior was cool, it was basically an over-hyped German Bennigan’s. My main dish was fine but the Brussels sprouts and mushrooms on the side were the worst I’ve ever had. They did not get a tip for their ridiculous portion costs, either. We had to stop at a fancy chocolatier to get some (yummy) hot chocolate after, to wipe that taste out of our mouths. Sometimes you don’t get lucky with food, I guess!
It was finally time to pack, which sucked, but we had some raspberry booze from the day before to finish so that helped. I had a lot more space left than I anticipated, but I guess I brought a lot of things for Peter and didn’t buy a lot of souvenirs! We did some final cleanup and also re-conditioned Peter’s dress shoes, which were in need of some more warm wax finish after the winter months. Nothing like taking advantage of a free hair dryer in new and unusual ways!
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