SPRING TRIP 2017: LEIPZIG

Monday 29^th

We only drove 67 miles to Sangerhausen, as it was so hot and draining. We stopped at a large supermarket on the edge of town, and then on to the stellplatz which was just a gravel car park (free) no facilities at all. By 4.00pm it had risen to 33’C in the van and we did not know what to do with ourselves. Sleep that night was very broken.

Tuesday 30^th

We left around 9.30 to drive the next 68 miles to Leipzig, arriving before lunch. We found a spot and settled ourselves in for a few days, only water and electricity here. After lunch we walked about 20 minutes to find the train station to go in to the city and sussed out tickets and times for tomorrow. Back at the van it was again getting steadily hotter, then by 6.00pm the sky was black and all hell let loose. We had thunder, lightning, hailstones like marbles, howling gale, then rain in torrents. Leaves, twigs and branches flew off the trees, luckily the 2 vans parked under the trees had been advised to move, just as well they did. After about an hour it all calmed down, the site was like a lake with rivers flowing through it, but at least cooler and fresher now, only 27’C

Apparently it was the worst storm they have had for 3 years! Just our luck.

Wednesday 31^st

At least we were able to sleep better and were woken by the delivery of fresh rolls at about 7.30am. We set off for the station around 9.30 and were in the city by 10.30….then we walked, and walked, and walked, market square, old town hall, new town hall, St. Nikolai church, shopping centre eventually finding the tourist office. We bought day tickets for the city tour buses and sat for one and half hours on a red bus going around the inner part of the city. There was nowhere near as many old buildings as we had expected, but lots of new modern architecture everywhere. Back at Augustus Platz we meandered across another square and down some side streets until we found the tour bus start point once more. We got on the last green bus tour which goes out in to the surroundings a bit more and one of the stops was at the Markleeburg See which we thought was not far from our stellplatz, so we got off. First we found a very nice ice cream café and then a restaurant, we decided on dinner which was lovely. Afterwards we headed back, or so we thought, getting hopelessly lost, arriving back at the van an hour later, around 7.30pm absolutely shattered. At least it has been cooler today, we even got a bit wet at one point on the bus.

Square outside station

Goethe's statue

Media Tower

New apartments

New Town Hall

Roman Monument

Peace Revolution mural

Pedestrian Street

River cruise boat

Metalwork studio

Naughty bronze men and women

Street band

Thursday 1^st June

Another bright, sunny day to be awoken by roll delivery again. After yesterday’s exercise we thought we would have a quiet stay-at-home day. We have to move tomorrow as there is a large festival taking place this weekend and all the pitches have been reserved for that.

We went for a stroll around the park and lake to see the White House, which turns out to be the Register Office as well as other official rooms. We also found a Photomuseum, but that does not open until this afternoon, so we might return to that later on.