bach's church

The day before I came home (yes! the parade of vacation photos is about to end!), S.Ev and I took a day trip from Berlin down to Leipzig. The round trip train ticket cost 80 euros. I'm not even going to tell you how many dollars that is, because I can't believe I spent that much on a day trip. (S.Ev was able to get a discounted ticket.)

Leipzig was pretty cool - after a delicious (and cheap) brunch and an interesting (and free) visit to the Stasi Museum, S.Ev and I went to a concert (cheap) at Bach's church. This is where he spent most of his career.

The Thomaskirche has concerts every Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, we weren't there on a weekend when the Thomanerchor - the boys' choir Bach himself directed - was performing. But the choir we heard, a local women's choir, was very good and did a really interesting range of music. They even did a nice job with "Deep River," which, being in English, could have been pret-ty bad. (They got one vowel and one consonant wrong, but S.Ev says I was nitpicking.)

There's tons of music history in Leipzig - Bach, of course, and Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn, apparently, was a big champion of Bach's music and helped get it rediscovered in the 19th century. Richard Wagner was born there, and the Schumanns lived there, too.