Berlin to Leipzig and Weimar: Private day trip

Since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, Leipzig has experienced a fresh lease of life. With a thriving cultural scene, high standard of living and plentiful green spaces, the largest city in Saxony should not be overlooked! The historic downtown area of Leipzig boasts buildings ranging in style from renaissance to baroque to promoterism (an architectural style unique to Austria and Germany) and has many sites of historical interest. The most famous of these is St Nicholas Church, which played an important role in the 1989 peaceful protests against communist rule. As well as a varied history, Leipzig is also a city of culture. It has a strong musical tradition which is highlighted through the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Leipzig Opera house. Meanwhile art-lovers can choose from a number of galleries and museums including Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts, the Ethnography Museum, Applied Arts Museum, and Musical Instrument Museum.

Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, Weimar was regarded as the cultural center of Europe with Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Bach, Liszt and Lucas Cranach all deciding that this post-World War I symbol of liberal democracy was the place to be. Nowadays, the city is often described as a “park with a town attached to it” and this becomes clear after a walk through romantic Park an der IIm, which contains Goethe’s Garden House along with a host of other monuments from the ‘Age of Enlightenment.’ It is rare to find a public park that is so vividly green and breathtaking in the middle of a city. The river dissects it with plenty of bridges and benches to take a rest on and admire the cultural treasures that seem to be everywhere. Park an der IIm is such a unique part of the city and is a must-see if you like parks…and even if you don’t!