A day off in Leipzig

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So things in Rehfeld have calmed down as the horses now know me better and have realised I will only accept good behaviour, I rarely (touch wood) have major issues and now we have had Christmas and New Year and Gretchen (Gerlind's daughter) is home I have a whole day off to go adventuring in Leipzig. A nice sleep in, breakie at 9 and a quick race to the train station with Gretchen's advice that unfortunately there is work on the train lines and I will need to catch a bus half way through....but don't worry everyone will be getting off doing the same thing. No worries, seasoned (not peppered) traveller here! My first task was to locate the main church in the central part of town. I had seen it last time when Chrissy and I had explored the Christmas markets but I had not gone inside. There was still a christmas tree up and luckily my timing was perfect as the organist had chosen that morning to do their practise. The music was so beautiful in the church and I sat and listened through a couple of rounds of the same song before heading off to the next church (there are only three and the whole blog isn't about churches, I promise). As a rule I still love looking at the outside of churches, but I have stopped going inside. I made an exception for Leipzig as this church was famous for being the workplace of Johann Sebastian Bach! I found the entrance, which was weirdly an arrow to the toilets. Walked around again and found another entrance! There is a stained glass window of Bach and Mendelssohn and also Bach's giant organ. Hehe, did I word that wrong? No wait, a reconstruction of Bach's old Organ (this is getting worse!). So anyway his Organ was destroyed...this is the closest replica of what it would have been like! :-) The church also supposedly has Bach's bones buried with a plaque on top. Slightly odd but I got a photo anyway. What really tickled my fancy was the historical info. I will tell you only the most interesting parts which earnt me strange looks from the other folk gathered around as I was laughing out loud...in a church. Whoops.

Interesting
He created new songs each week....150 in total. That meant his choir learnt a new song each week too.....not easy. This doesn't include special commisionned works for holidays...that was extra.

Funny
Leipzig was being bombed, Bach's remains were in the St John's church, which was destroyed so they moved Bach's bones to his workplace, the St Thomas church. The guy who was hired to do it, dug through the rubble, grabbed the bones, put them on a wheel barrow, drove it all the way through town and when he arrived at the other church said "Hello there Superintendent, I bring Bach".

I spent the next few hours inside the Bach museum learning lots of musical history and taking no photos as I wasn't allowed but I thoroughly enjoyed most of it. I am not a big fan of museums generally....luckily today was very rainy so a museum trip was a perfect idea. Afterwards I wandered town, made the mistake of checking out the new version of my galaxy tablet....now I want one, and ate curry bratwurst mit fries for lunch. Yum. I found the last church in town but couldn't get inside so instead I found a coffee shop and blogged a few hours away happily just chilling out.

I enjoyed Leipzig, especially learning of Bach and it was a successful day out but I am sad to say I am tired of being a tourist and the nicest thing was looking forward to going 'home'. The most joyful thing was having a home and adopted family to go back to! Routine and recouperation is currently winning the race against rampant partying. We'll see how long it takes before my feet get itchy again...but for now, I am happy being here in Germany, learning the language, learning the culture and history of East vs West from Gerlind, training horses, riding ponies, eating way too much good food cooked by Gerlind. Daily...fresh bread, butter, BIG lunches, dessert, homemade biscuits and cakes, fresh bread, butter, oh and did I mention the fresh bread and butter! I am putting on way too much weight....but the food is so good! Buy all thoughts of a tight belly are long long gone. Lunch today was potato pancakes with apple sause and cinnamon sugar on top, or with nutela. Delicious, so delectable, but its doing serious damage on my waistline. So is the pumpkin pie for dessert. Fitness level? Average. Body shape? Blob. Bikini ready/brazillian dance costume ready level? Absolute zero. Nevermind...I will enjoy the good good while I can! :-)

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