Leipzig

From Prague we caught a series of increasingly delayed trains, arriving eventually in Leipzig after many announcements blaming the delays on trains coming from ‘other lands’. Despite the inadequacies of neighbouring countries’ timetabling, the DB trains are extremely comfortable and it is a delight to be in Central Europe, finally. This year we’ve met people from all over the world, and pretty much everyone from this region has played fast and loose with defining the boundaries of Europe, particularly Western Europe. Some think Poland and even Kyiv are in Western Europe 👀. Where *does* Western Europe begin and end? Please share your geographical opinions in the comments.

This stop has been an absolute treat as we dropped into Leipzig to visit Julia, a university friend of Chelsea’s, and her partner Luis. They have perhaps the most comfortable sofa bed in the world. We ate homemade flammkuchen and local pastries, and schupfnudeln, kartoffelpuffer, gluhwein, handbrot, vegan currywurst & bratwurst at the German Christmas markets. We explored Leipzig’s beautifully restored city centre and grungy, artsy bars. We made one faux pas by bringing ‘Bavarian Blue’ cheese into the house, but we conceded that Bavarians are *the worst* and were quickly forgiven.

Leipzig has had a glow up in the last fifteen years (we are told), and so much of the city we saw has been restored and now appears to be gorgeously maintained. There are so many great independent bookshops, tchotchke and trinket stores, music venues and cafés. GDR socialist architecture abuts 19th century style. It’s definitely a future return trip for the summer.

This was our penultimate stop, and a good rest. We also found that this is the first stop since Darwin where locals don’t assume we’re foreigners based on our appearance, and Dan is just average height—we look like everyone else. Dan has been attempting to sustain this verisimilitude in cafés by ordering in German, very proud of his accent and familiarity with the first ten numbers. Follow-up questions prove somewhat more difficult.

Hoping our final accommodation is warm, since with only three days to go, Dan has lost his pyjamas. We are in good spirits and looking forward to one more stop!Read more