Novotel Leipzig City

... model of Auschwitz..it had the people going through to the undressing rooms to the gas chambers and the bodies going to the crematoriums..it looked like a production line and you could get a whole picture and the grand scale of mass murder conveyed from the one model. The other thing I came to realize was that Hitler started his Brainwashing young, you were funnelled into the army from the ages of 12 with Hitler run "youth clubs" and then progressed to fighting for ...

... took about half an hour to get to the zoo. By this time, of course, the Swedish snake that Saskia had been desperate to bring with us, had gotten too heavy and lost its appeal. Martina wrapped it round herself like a mad scarf and we went off to see the black bears, pygmy hippos and penguins. We didn't have a chance to see all the creatures. It would have taken too long. We did see the baby elephant and some very cool lizards. The ...

... to find that it is a modern building rather than the old one we had expected. We went to the Egyptian Museum, which was a very interesting but very small collection.<br><br>Our next appointment was at Thomaskirche for a Motette at which the Ottawa Bach Choir were singing. We had some time to kill, so looked through the shops to get Helen some new jeans - with eventual success - and had a coffee.<br><br>The Thomaskirche was nearly full for the ...

... br><br>We caught the tram into town and visited the tourist bureau. Unfortunately it appears that there is not much on at the moment - the festival season starts the day after we leave!<br><br>We explored the huge Hauptbahnhof (railway station) which includes a 3-level shopping centre. We had an enjoyable lunch at Pic Cin cafe (spelt that way!) - ham cheese and mushroom crepes for J &amp; A.<br><br>We looked at Nikolaikirche and Thomaskirche, both ...

... just took us on a loop back to the same spot. So, we guessed which road might be a way around the blockage and followed it until the GPS found us another way back past the blockage to our destination, Guesthouse Apartments Leipzig. We were concerned by the shabby appearance of the outside, and by the road being dug up to re-lay the tram lines. We parked across the street in the carpark of a hardware store and walked over to find out about checking in. We were very cold ...

The Start of our Travel was the regular Train-Journey from Zittau to Leipzig. A not very spectacular drive, which we do almost every week. We wanted to use the time to improve our spanish skills but ended up talking to some carneval-junkies, boarding the train some 15 minutes after us...

... aber noch auf uns warten. Auch wenn sich der endgueltige Abflug bis nach 2Uhr hinzog - jeder im Flieger vertraute den Aussagen. Montag ca. 11:00 Vereinigter Emirater Ortszeit (oder wie das heisst) - der Flieger ist gelandet und wir werden am Flughafen empfangen. Keiner ahnt allerdings zu diesem Zeit*********** der Anschluss selbstverfreilich nicht gewartet hat und was uns weiter erwartet. Die naechsten 7 Stunden werden wir auf dem Flughafen Abu Dhabi ...

Leipzig had one of the coolest museums we've visited so far: one dedicated to the operations of the GDR (East German) secret police, known as the Stasi. The GDR kept extremely detailed tabs on EVERYONE in their country, employing spies of all ages and collecting and filing all the information. The Stasi Museum (Museum an der Runden Ecke) was their old headquarters in Leipzig and has been kept as it was to show the oppressive nature of even the Stasi workplace. Very exciting and VERY cool!

... Station also has some Significance. It has 26 platforms and is one of the largest terminal stations and one of the largest passenger-railway stations in Europe. It opened in 1915, but it sure isn't dingy. Central station is one of Germany's most modern stations. The station is also important because it is the focus point of all the transport systems and is the gate to the city. Most trams and bus routes converge in front of Central station.

I made it to Fulda, in pretty good time, having the benefit of coming down the other side of the mountain. A longer, shallower slope. Fulda is another beautiful town, very proud of its connection with Saint Boniface (Bonifatius, to the locals) about whom wikipedia volunteers the following; ´In 716 he set out on a missionary expedition to Frisia, intending to convert the Frisians [I´m fairly sure frisians are cows, which may explain his lack of success]. In 723, Boniface ...