Thursday, August 6th - Leipzig, Germany

We had another easy morning and these really are wonderful.  At 10:30 we were off to catch the tram to Central Station and then transfer to another tram to take us to our tour sights for the day.  We only had two places to go but they took most of the day.

Our first stop was at the Leipzig 1813 exhibit and 360 panorama at the Panometer.  We were expecting a 360 degree movie but it wasn't really that at all.  It was 360 but it was a still life with sound and lighting that highlighted what happened in October 1813 in Leipzig.  The panorama is huge and covers 3500 square meters has a 1:1 scale and gives you views from the top of one of the churches in Leipzig through the streets and squares and out into the countryside as it was in 1813.  The basic building drawings came from old pictures and the action details come from someone whose name I have forgotten who hid under a mattress up high on some building as the battle was being fought and drew pictures of everything he saw.  His exhibits were shown in London following the war and then used as the basis for this exhibit.  They then had people dressed up in the appropriate uniforms as soldiers and costumes as townsfolk and they took still staged shots and action shots - over 40,000 pictures in all.  Then they placed the people in the squares and the streets and in buildings and out in the countryside.  It was very colourful with all the different uniforms involved in the battle.  There was a lot of damage to the town and lots of fires, and certainly a lot of dead and wounded soldiers and horses.  The lighting came up on various parts of the picture and the sound changed accordingly as the show progressed.  You went from quiet morning prayers to total chaos and bloodshed.  

The entire panorama probably took about 15 minutes and kept repeating so if you missed any of it you could watch it from the beginning again.  Following this they had a video that described how they made the panorama and that was very interesting from a production point of view.  Prior to the panorama they had an exhibit that talked about Leipzig's history prior to 1813 and why it was such an important town being at the intersection of the east-west and north-south train lines through Europe.  They had English to read in that part of the exhibit, which a lot of the museums do not, so it was very easy to follow as you walked around the building.  Oh yeah, the building is like a big oil tank - round and with high walls but it also has windows so it wasn't an old oil tank.  There are several similar buildings around town but we never did figure out exactly what they were originally.

Our next stop was the Monument to the Battle of the Nations and I have to admit that I had never heard of it.  I had heard of Napolean and the Napoleonic Wars but that was the extend of my knowledge - except that he was friends with Tzar Alexander of Russia and while Napoleon thought that would make taking Russia easier, it didn't as Alexander drove him  out of Moscow and Napoleon suffered big losses (learned that at the Hermitage Amsterdam in their exhibit on Alexander, Napoleon and Josephine).  Well it seems that Alexander and the Russians got together with some other countries (the Allies) and came after Napoleon and his forces.  The final battle was in Leipzig and Napoleon was defeated.  Over 90,000 soldiers were killed in the October battle and a lot more were injured.  Fifty makeshift hospitals were put into operation immediately after the battle, almost every church, hall or meeting place and some private homes.  Because of the unhealthy situation many in Leipzig died later from a typhoid epidemic.  The monument is built on the site of the main battle field and most of the dead were found in the area. They were buried here and thus a monument had to be built.  However it took them until 1913 to actually get it built.  More renovations ended in 2013 that allow the visitor to go right to the top of the monument.

It is going to be hard to describe the monument itself because it is so amazing and so large.  500 steps or two elevators and 130 steps takes you to the top.  Steps at the top were not in the architects original plan but the man in charge of construction decided they needed steps so he worked out a route for a single narrow staircase to climb in and around the inside of the monument to get to the top.  Sometimes you are spiralling to the left and sometimes to the right.  Sometimes there are two routes so one is up and one is down, but at the very top there is only one route so they have a red/green stoplight so you know when you can go.  We went to the top, with the help of the two elevators, and the view was amazing.  It was a bit hazy but you could still see a long way.   Identifying thee spires and towers within the old city was certainly a highlight but the countryside was also great - including some lakes which were apparently old open-pit mines but are now recreational lakes.  

The top of the tower is over 90 meters high and it is flat and that is where the viewing platform is.  Below that is the Founders' Cupola, which you wind around outside its walls and inside the exterior wall.  Below that there are some additional viewing areas - very narrow and almost impossible to get through if there were other people to pass.  Below that you have the Singers' Gallery, which is on the inside and just a small walkway - just enough room for singers to stand and sing.  The acoustics are supposed to be remarkable, which makes sense as the entire building is bare stone or brick and the interior is open and high so the sound would really resonate,

The Hall of Fame and the Crypt are the next two levels down.  Four huge figures depicting good characteristics sit in the Hall of Fame and these figures are really big.  We weren't even up to their shins so I'm guessing they were 30 feet high at least.  Around the Crypt there are 16 stone-carved soldiers guarding the memorial and they too are big.  Even the mounted horsemen carved into the walls of the cupola are large (1.4 x 1.5 ) although they look quite small from down on the bottom floor.    Of course there is quite a height difference as the too of the monument is over 90 metres high. We figure it is about 30 stories high which is the same height as the other lookout we went to the other day.  

On the bottom floors they had a video on how the monument was made and how the restoration work was done.  The audio guide was great and also talked about how the monument was built and why.  It was actually amazing to think about how they built the whole structure.  It is on a swampy area which was used as a garbage dump.  To build the monument they had to drive pilings deep into the ground.  Because they wanted the centre of the monument open for viewing they had to build the whole thing on pillars.  That fact allowed an elevator to be fitted into the building.

The exterior of the building is massive and all stone.  If it were white it would look like a many-tiered wedding cake.  It towers above you so you can hardly get the entire monument in a picture.  There are sculptures in various locations: a soldier above the door, soldiers up at the very top, dead and/or dying soldiers and horses around the bottom, and lots more.  There is a large pond out front so one also has the chance of a picture with a reflection.

The last part we went into was a museum that talked (a lot!) about the political situation at the time and what lee to the battle.  It was very interesting but also very long, and many of the talks really didn't have much to do with the item on exhibit so it got a bit confusing.

By the time we finished in the museum it was almost  3 p.m. and we still hadn't had lunch so we went to the cafe to get something.  Well, cafe isn't exactly the right word.  Everything came from a vending machine so we ended up splitting a cheese and cracker snack and a chocolate bar and we each had a drink (coffee, hot chocolate) from the machine.  Not exactly healthy but it filled the void for a while.

We then went back to the Old Town.  As Randy returned the audio guides and got his license back I remembered that I didn't get mine back from the Bach Museum so this was my last chance to go back and retrieve it.  The folks in the museum were as relieved as I was that I got it back.  They generally hold them for three days and then they mail them to the person.  This was day three so I just made it on time.  

From there we found a place to have a real meal and relaxed for a while.  I then headed back to the hotel while Randy wandered around the Old Town a bit longer.  Downloading and uploading pictures and packing seemed more important to me than more of the Old Town.