With a deeply tradition of music, Leipzig has been home to the renowned musicians and composers from all times, for the likes of Johan Sebastian Bach, Richard Wagner, Schumann or Mendelssohn. Music and culture is in every corner of the city, in the habitual concerts in Augustusplatz or in the different music festivals of every music style that the city offers.

Also known as Heldenstadt (City of Heroes), Leipzig was crucible for the revolution against the communist dictatorship in Eastern Germany, in a non-violent revolution that was called Friedliche Revolution and that ended up with the fall of the Wall in Berlin in 1989. 

Baroque, neoclassical and modernist architecture blends with the buildings of the Soviet-era in Leipzig and there are many shops, restaurants, cafés and clubs in the city center. 

A place that shows how the city is constantly culturally evolving is Spinnerei, (http://www.spinnerei.de/ , Spinnereistraße 7 ), an old cotton spinning mill in the district of Lindenau that is now a big factory for culture diffusion where talent and art from the artists of the so-called “New School Of Leipzig”. You can visit workshops, exhibition gallerys and Art shops, asist the cinema forums and eat at their restaurants. 

If you are interested in the History of Music in Leipzig you have plenty of museums and interesting places to visit 

Museum of Musical Instruments
You will enjoy of one of the most important collections in the world and discover a good perspective of the History of Music of the city

Bach's Museum
You will discover Bach, the main artist in baroque german musical style everywhere in the city. Especially in this museum which opened in 2010. An interactive exhibition that present the life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Mendelssohn's museum-house
The last home for Felix Mendelssohn, a late Biedermeier-style house where he moved with his family in 1845, is since 1997 the composer's museum where you will see the original furniture and some of his objects.

Gewandhaus concert hall
Headquarters of the Gewandhaus orchestra. Founded in 1743 and directed for a long time by Kurt Masur, one of the promoters of the peaceful Leipzig's revolution. The main attraction is the visit to the impressive 6,638 pipe organ!

But there is not only music in Leipzig. Auerbachs Keller, a famous restaurant , is a must in the city. Here , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent long times as a student and now is full of students and young people from all over the world. It was founded in 1525 by a doctor in his own home cellar.

History has its own place as well in Mädle, an old drugstore which is now a restaurant and a night pub. In Bergstrasse 19, there is also a Saxon food restaurant Thüringer Hof where Lutero used to go.

Notice that there is a Flea Market in Leipzig on the last weekend of the month. They say it is the eldest and the biggest in Europe

Picture Gewandhaus by Andreas Praefcke/ Picture Leipzig by Tino Strauss / Picture Bach by nalocos.blogspot.com

In 1996, Bordeaux decide to jack up and become a city of the 21st century. The ensuing project developed in several stages – the facades of the city’s Baroque buildings were cleaned (Bordeaux’s 18th-century heritage is exceptional), the docks along the Garonne river were reconditioned and a solar-powered tramway was built. The Bordelais are rightly proud of this sustainability initiative. This whole facelift led to the capital of Aquitania being chosen as the European Best Destination in 2015 with an all-time record score, ahead of the greats like Rome, Brussels, London and Berlin.

Apart from the aforementioned works, designed to modernise the city, Bordeaux has committed to sustainability. Among other things, three years ago this involved unveiling the Darwin Ecosysteme, an area around the Queyries quayside, although the project originally dates from 2005. This area, which stretches along the right bank of the Garonne, is sited over an erstwhile industrial zone. Cleaning it up and remodelling it took two years. The brain behind the project is Philippe Barre, an Bordeaux entrepreneur committed to sustainable development who did not hesitate to invest his own money in an ecosystem which combines energy efficiency, renewable energies, ecology and thrift. To this end, Darwin is managed by the Évolution Group, an incubator of companies devoted to sustainable development, funded through office space rentals and coworking, events organising and the support of private patrons and, to a lesser extent, public subsidies. The ultimate aim of this initiative is to elicit the responsible use of resources in order to check the advance of climate change.

At first glance Darwin looks like a half-derelict site, but it actually houses over a hundred companies, many of them start-ups, who are dedicated to sustainable development – a pre-condition for being allowed to set up here. This fosters a pleasant, ecological working environment for employees, able to reap the benefits of an ecosystem conducive to development and human growth. Also based here are around twenty Bordeaux associations involved in urban culture and ecology.

Darwin features some unique spaces, such as a huge skatepark built using recycled materials, graffiti-decorated walls, the Magasin Général, the largest biological restaurant in France and a macrostore with organic products. Protecting the environment is an idea which is here starting to take its first few tentative steps, so it comes as no surprise that the projects evolving in this area are still on a modest scale, such as protecting bees, organic allotments and free-range chicken rearing. There is also a recycling station which supplies material to the coworking spaces. In the future, Darwin will be hosting fully sustainable social housing, making it the most ecological district in Bordeaux.

Fancy seeing this sustainable district for yourself? Check out your Vueling to Bordeaux here.

Text and images by Tus Destinos

Images by Sara Soulignac and S.Duboscq

The Bauhaus School – from the German bau (construction) and haus (house) – was probably one of the most important and revolutionary driving forces in the 20th century in the fields of art, design and architecture. In the short space of merely 20 years, a team of inquiring artists and architects, influenced by the social movements of the time, managed to overturn the prevailing way of conceiving art and architecture and their relationship to society. Their achievements include laying the foundations for industrial design, graphic design and modern architecture. What’s more, they even put forward and saw implemented an alternative educational model which was ahead of its time. A host of figures succumbed to such innovation and each contributed their grain of sand, including Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer and Lyonel Feininger.

A good way of taking stock of that brilliant past, which we are now so indebted to, is by visiting two cities where the movement was based –Weimar and Dessau.

Weimar – The First Steps

Weimar was the first of three centres of Bauhaus activity. No wonder, then, that this city had already been the hub of the German Enlightenment and a meeting place for intellectuals. The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, who took his first tentative steps in the Haus Hohe Pappeln, a school of arts and crafts designed by a pioneer of modernity, Henry van de Velde.

The only building in the Bauhaus style still standing in Weimar is the Haus am Horn, built in 1923 and designed by Georg Muche, a painter and lecturer at the Bauhaus. The building was designated World Heritage of the 20th Century in 1996.

Located in the Theaterplatz is the Weimar Bauhaus Museum, a moderately sized venue devoted to the Bauhaus. A much more spacious centre is due to be inaugurated in 2018.

Dessau – The Boom

In 1925, Walter Gropius was forced to close the school in Weimar for political reasons, but he received the necessary support to move it to Dessau. Fortunately, in the case of Dessau, there are lots of buildings that have survived to the present, including the school itself, regarded as a masterpiece of European rationalism. When preparing the groundwork for your tour of the various Bauhaus landmarks in the city, we recommend you browse this website to check the times and to book your tickets, as not all the areas are admission free.

Bauhaus Building (Bauhausgebäude).The work of Walter Gropius, this is the most emblematic of the Bauhaus constructions. Built in 1925 and 1926, it is made up of various interconnecting volumes, each with a different function. Building work involved the use of industrial techniques and a striking feature of the design is the glazed frontage.

Masters’ Houses (Meisterhäuser).Located near the school, this ensemble of four residential buildings was home to the masters: Gropius, Moholy-Nagy/Feninger, Muche/Schelemer and Kandinsky/Klee. Their interiors are open to the public, except for that of Gropius, which was destroyed during the war.

Törten Estate. The work of Walter Gropius, this ensemble of 300 houses was built in 1920 in the south of Dessau. Commissioned by the City Council, it is a prototype of a housing estate and was intended to act as a model for social housing.

Kornhaus. More playful in design, this restaurant and pub overlooking the river Elbe was designed by Carl Fieger, a draughtsman in Gropius’ practice.

Berlin was the last of the Bauhaus centres, where it was located from 1932 to 1934. However, the rise of National Socialism would put an end to this brilliant core of creativity and innovation, driving it to other countries, but the mark it left has survived until the present.

From Leipzig it is an easy train ride to both Weimar and Dessau, where you can steep yourself in the Bauhaus. Check out your flight here!

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

 By Marlys and Michael Easy Hiker

Let’s be totally honest about this: The best thing about Deutsche Bahn’s Across-the-Country 1-day rail pass (the “Quer-durchs-Land” ticket or QdL for short) is that it’s very cheap. 48 Euros for two people on any regional train in Germany: that’s an unbeatable offer.

Journeys take a little longer than on the fast IC trains, that much is for certain, and their trajectories may be slightly more convoluted, but that can be a benefit, too.

Recently, on our way back from a hike in the Mecklenburger Seenplatte, for example, we took the opportunity to break up what would otherwise have been a very long train journey to make a two-hour stop in Hamburg. Two hours in Hamburg are not a lot for such a big city, Germany’s largest after Berlin, but we had been there several times and knew where to go. In the end, we were surprised how many of the city’s main sites we were able to cover.

From the central train station, head straight (down Mönckebergstraße) for the so-called Binnenalster, Hamburg’s poshest mile. Along its banks, you can find some of Germany’s biggest private banks, most expensive hotels and fanciest restaurants.

The huge and opulent building on the artifical lake’s southern shore is Hamburg’s City Hall, built in the 19th century with the era’s typical sense for flash and grandeur.

Walk down past the Alsterfleet canal, underneath the Alsterarkaden colonnades, before turning right on Stadthausbrücke and heading for St Michael’s Church, Hamburg’s main landmark since it was built in the 17th century – famous not least because it was the first building of the city that many of her visitors, coming from the sea, were able to spot in the distance.

The church may look rather austere from the outside, but the interiors are as tacky as a West End theatre. (Entrance is free, but you are encouraged to donate €2 when you leave. Alternatively, you can squeeze by the burly lady who guards the exit door. Best to wait, probably, for one of the other tourists to distract her with a question – that’s what I did, anyway.)

The street on the right hand side of the church, by the way, leads you straight to St Pauli – Reeperbahn, Star Club and all that. (Unfortunately, we had no time for that.)

Instead, we turn left out of the church, past the modern offices of Gruner & Jahr, one of Germany’s largest publishing houses, in the direction of the harbour, one of the ten largest in the world.

Turn left to head for the Speicherstadt (“warehouse town”), my favourite part of Hamburg and one of Europe’s greatest works of 19th century architectural engineering, grand and graceful at the same time, a cross between Venice and London’s old docklands. The buildings were all warehouses once, of course, but are today mainly occupied by theatre companies, museums and tourist attractions such as the “Hamburg Dungeon”.

I could easily have spent the rest of the day walking from canal to canal, but there was no time. Instead, we took the subway train back to the city centre (if you have a Länderticket or a QdL Ticket, you are also free to use subways and S-Bahn trains) and had just about enough time for a quiet cup of coffee outside in the April sun on Mönckebergstraße, the city’s main shopping street, 5 minutes away from the central train station.

By Marlys and Michael Easy Hiker

 How about going to Hamburg? Have a look at our flights here!