Trip 2 - Leipzig

On this trip, I came to work with the client in Leipzig again. This time we had a rental car and the notion that we would sample as much of the area as we can. "We" includes my co-workers, Scott and Mike.
One of the adventures was to sample the local cuisine. Most of this has been quite good, but one of the firlst days we went to the Gasthaus near the hotel. Since this was a traditional German gasthaus, seating was family style, sharing tables with the other guests. The menus were in German, allowing the selection itself to be an adventure. I ordered the butcher's plate, which, according to the menu, included sausages and pork. Sounded good. When the platter came, it was on a butcher's block platter, and direct from the butcher - as in raw. Well this was a surprise. The actual dish included raw ground pork (called mett), head cheese, uncooked sausages, and other indistinguishable raw meats. I did taste most of the items, and was able to share with the others, but much of it went uneaten. As I said - an adventure.

On Saturday, Scott and I went into Leipzig to see what we could see. We parked underground, and when we came up, it was between the opera house and the performance hall in a large open plaza. We walked through the city center, noting that we could get a pizza every 10 feet or so.
We toured the St. Nicholas' church, which was one of the newer churches in town. This church has an interesting history. In case I haven't mentioned it before, Leipzig is located in the area that was East Germany for many years. Many of the city leaders met in the church every Monday to pray for peace. In 1989, the state police had been used to disperse a demonstration nearby. On the following Monday, the prayer group decided to meet as usual, not knowing whether the police would arrive to arrest them all. Tensions were high when the meeting ended, but when they walked outside, they were greeted by several thousand people holding candles. According to the tour, this is how the revolution began. Very moving story to me. (for more, read this.)

Resuming walking around, we found a mysterious pair of blue pipes. These pipes come out of the ground, go through the west end of downtown and end. By end, I mean that they don't go anywhere - just cut off. This wouldn't be too unusual, except that they are pretty big - probably 18" in diameter, and they were well engineered with proper supports, etc. A mystery yet to be solved.

Next we went to St. Thomas church (Thomaskirche), which is where Bach worked as cantor from 1723 to his death in 1750. Scott had heard that they were going to have a choir concert. Instead they were having a Motette. This was a performance of singing by a quartet of choir members along with a brief church service. The last piece that was performed was a piece that Back had written while at the church played on the organ that Bach used to compose it. Very very cool hearing a piece the way that the original composer probably heard it.

We then went to see the largest monument in Europe, located in Leipzig. The monument was created to celebrate the victory against Napoleon. By the time we got to the monument, the visitor center was closed, so we could only explore the outside up to a point. The monument has several statues of men that are really large - probably like Egyptian statues. Even though we could only climb up to the first level outside, it was pretty high, and the view was fantastic.

We joined up with Mike, and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant across the street from St. Thomas Kirche. Very good food. Interestingly, when I talked to my mom afterwards, she recommended the same restaurant. Small world.