Weekend in Leipzig + what to see, where to stay, what to eat…

Friday:

We arrived on Friday after a 2,5 h drive at our Hotel. We stayed at the WestIn Hotel, a huge business hotel with a impressing lobby and and lots of conference rooms. You immediately feel incredibly businessy by entering. 

The room was pretty big (Deluxe Room) and had an awesome view over the old town of Leipzig. After checking in and bringing our luggage to our rooms we headed into the old city. They had a Starbucks near our hotel so this was our first stop. Who wouldn´t love a Christmas themed coffee with all the advent markets around you.

There is seriously one big advent market through the whole city centre which means there are lights and trees and Christmas songs everywhere. We coudln´t decide on what to do first so we went to see the St. Nicholas Church, the second biggest church in Leipzig and head of the protestant churches. And what can I say, entrance is free so be sure to go inside and take a look. It is stunning. The whole church is white and mint and rose. I don´t kid you. I have never seen such an interior in a church. So beautiful and clean and bright. Really worth a walk trough (even if you are not into churches or old buildings but this was far from the usual.

Afer that we went to the city centre for a late lunch and decided to go shopping for the rest of the day since it was getting dark already and there wasn´t even that much time left until our dinner reservation.

I picked three stores I wanted to visit and the first one of course was Sephora (we don´t have one in the town I live which is pretty sad). I got lots of stuff I wanted to try out and also some new things I didn´t know before. They had an entire 20 % off of the whole assortment. So it was a win-win for Florian and me.

The next store we went to was the Zalando outlet store. I was curious about that cause I love to shop for all the English brands on Zalando like New Look, Anna Field and River Island. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. They carry a lot but they are sorted by sizes which means it takes forever to find a piece of the brand you are looking for. I got two ponchos for about 8 Euro each and a pretty pleated skirt for 12 Euro but that was it. 

After our sobering experience at the outlet store we made our way to Primark. I have only been to Primark once, while in London, and it was a complete nightmare so I wasn´t as enthusiastically as I should have been. But it was all right. It was crowded but not much worse than an H&M store. I got many cute things like handbands and turbans, beanies and a sleepshirt as well as a cute makeup bag.

Since this has been our last store we went to the hotel afterwards to shower and get dressed and get to our dinner reservation at Prime Burger. I had a chicken Ceasar Salad and Florian of course had a burger. My side dish where sweet potatoe fries cause I love them and he had choosen the wedges but they weren´t as good as they looked. In fact they tasted really plain. Overall the food was great. Lots of chicken and a huge bowl of salad and a juicy tasty big burger for a reasonable price. Be sure to make reservations cause they are pretty crowded on the weekend.

Saturday:

Saturday was packed with a full sightseeing plan. After our breakfast (the WestIn Hotel has a breakfast buffet to die for, so much different and delicious food) we went out to get a fresh and warm cup of Starbucks and walked around the train station. There is another Starbucks downtown as well. The central station of Leipzig is huge (worlds largest train station in area)  with lots of shops but the ceiling is the real attraction. It is a very old (opended 103 years ago) and was hung with beautiful Christmas lights all over. It is really worth to take a look at.

The second sight we walked to was the MDR Panorama Tower. You can go up to the 26th floor and have a view over the whole city from every angle. We didn´t stay up there very long cause it was super cold and foggy but the view really is incredible and Leipzig really is a huge city although the city centre is pretty small.

After our little morning tour we got hungry and decided to have a quick lunch at the advent market. We had Currywurst and french fries and it was delicious. A little hard to eat cause they only have bar tables and none of them was free but still good.

Strenghtended by our food we headed to a passage nearby which is called the “Mädler Passage”. It inlcudes many restaurants, cafés and shops and also the most beautiful Christmas decor. In my opinion it looks like a mini version of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele from Milan. Really worth sitting there for a coffee or just walking through.

 To get our afternoon caffeine fuel we went to a coffee we had found a day earlier. The café Kandler. It was super crowded but we had luck and got a table after five minutes of waiting. I especially wanted to have coffee there because they bake the traditional sweet treat of Leipzig, the Leipziger Lerche. A little round pastry filled with marzipan. It is delicious but pretty filling. One is absolutely enough alhtough they look so tiny. The café Kandler is a traditional coffee/teahouse and cake shop founded in 1989.

  Right across the coffee house is the St. Thomas church (build in the 12th century). It is know for some of the most known composers like Bach (whose remains also lie there). The church also has its own boy choir – the Thomaserchoir which is known worldwide for their music. Unfortunately it was closed on Saturday afternoon as they prepared for the evening service.

So we headed back to the hotel to warm up. Although we walked and moved the whole day at some point it just became freezing outside. For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant called Enchilada. Also in walking distance from our hotel. I don´t have a complaint here. The food was sooo good (love mexican food). I had the three different echiladas and Florian ate a huge burrito. Highly recommend this one. You can make reservations online (highly recommended since it was absolutely full).

All of the sights and the restaurants we went to are in walking distance so we didn´t need a taxi or the tram at all.

Sunday:

We packed up and headed home after breakfast (and of course got a Starbucks coffee for the way) cause we missed Chloe a lot and saw everything we wanted too. After the half of the route it started to snow but it wasn´t too bad to drive so it was allright. In fact a little romantic with the white snow flakes outside and the Christmas music on the speakers.

Leipzig really is a nice city and a great change for the weekend since it is so near for us. It was prettier than we expected and in fact enough to see for two days but I wouldn´t stay any longer since there wasn´t anymore we where interested in.

Thanks for stopping by. If you still have any questions feel free to contact me. 

Take care. See you.