Leipzig vs Dresden - do not ask me

I love Leipzig. It is a cool and diverse town. The people are friendly and the food and drinks are good an cheap. It is a lively town but not noisy and dirty. Not too many people although it grows.
We took a car ride to see some other place like the airport (mostly freight) and Porsche fabric.
 
The city is surrounded by three lakes. In the city are a lot of parks and small rivers. It is very green and colorful.

My advise for you: go in spring or summer and enjoy not only the city but as well the nature in and around the city. By bicycle it wont take long to the lakes were people sail, swim and just enjoy each others.

first and last picture of Dresden - Katholische Hofkirhce

Dresden? Well to tell you the truth we stayed there for only a couple of hours. The opera, churches and cafes. As I felt sick I was not in the mood to explore another city. I have to come back.

As our friends live in Leipzig we will come back. Thank you for having us around. It was great.

Plagwitz - the past is futures neigbour

Plagwitz is a part of town and a song by a local band. But that is not the only reason why we took the tram to go there. Our friends told us what to do and see in Leipzig. In Plagwitz there is an old fabric and quite near there are some lofts. Sounds good because I like these things and there no tourists. Behind the scenes...

old spinning factory

We headed to the old cotton spinning factory. A huge area with tall brick buildings. These days the are a lot of start ups like architecture firms, galleries, cinemas, cafes, lawyers and so on. There are some flats as well. What a perfect spot to take nice pictures.

Plagwitz station

The train station of Plagwitz is just around the corner. As lots of houses and buildings in Saxony it looks abandoned. We followed a gravel road alongside the station and found some very nice spots to take pictures.

Time for a drink. We went to the racecourse that is surrounded by a nice park. After some snack and beer we headed to the town center. So many people seemed to have the same idea. But why? Ten... hundreds... thousands of people.  It was a football game. RB Leipzig vs. Monaco. We did not go. Instead we had a nice dinner and some beer.

Google told us we made 18 Km today!!! Now we realized how big the city was... What an easy day :-)

Leipzig - I like you

After our hiking trip in Saxon Switzerland we explored Leipzig. (Perhaps I should remind you that this hiking trip took hours and we made more than 20 Km on that day!) So we planed an easy day. Firstly we walked to the town centre to go for a good brunch. Secondly we bought a day pass for the public transport. Easy day -  no not at all. I tell you.

We decided to go to see the city from above. I like that  because you get a good overview which helps you to decide where to go. The MDR tower the tallest building in the city is not a beauty but the view from the platform was great. There is an entrance fee of some euros.

Monument of the Battle of the Nations

Back on the ground the tram brought us to the Monument of the Battle of the Nations. The architecture reminded me of Aztec Temples and Soviet buildings. Strange but very impressive. (entrance fee: EUR 8.00) Over 400 steps lead to the top! We were exhausted time for a break.

We sat next to the Monument for a smoke. In front of the Monument they rebuilt the "pool". In winter it is for ice skating and in summer you can see the reflection of the building. We were so lucky to see the bottom :-(

 

Getting there and around Saxony

While Leipzig is served from Basel several days a week there are daily flights from Zurich to Dresden. About one hours flight with small airplanes brings you to the mayor cities in Saxony.
Flixbus serves Leipzig as well but with a change of bus
in Berlin. By train you can reach Saxony as well but the connections are not too good and the journey time of more than 8 hours is a bit long in my opinion. I read that in a few months the open a new train route from Munich to Dresden by ICE, Germany's high speed train.

The cities itself have a wonderful public transportation infrastructure which is almost as expensive as in Switzerland. As the region is quite flat I recommend exploring it by bicycle. Leipzig for example is a very bicycle friendly city.
For longer distances the trains are running on time and are comfortable. The network expands over the border to the Czech Republic.