With only a few weeks to go before the start of my next journey it's time to blow the cobwebs out of the blog; I hope to post progress as I go along (comms permitting). This trip will be not so much a tour as a return to the region around Leipzig that I very much enjoyed on the first Grand Tour, and will finish with a busy three-day visit to Berlin. And rather than the musical theme of that tour, this one seems to have turned into a veritable art-fest.
Destinations include Erfurt, with its interesting twin churches and Mediaeval streets; Arnstadt, for the Bach family house and other Bach connections; and Weimar (where I shall be based for three nights) to visit the Bauhaus museum, and to see the Cranach paintings in the Schloss and in the Herderkirche that I missed last time.
Then Leipzig for six nights: for the refurbished Bach Museum, the art galleries (five on my list at the last count), the Schumann Haus, and a return to the superb Mendelssohn-Haus for a Sunday recital. Plus, I shall have three day-trips from Leipzig: to Halle for the Händelhaus which was closed for refurbishment last time; to Wittenberg for 'unfinished business' in the Cranach museum; and to Dessau for the Bauhaus building and Masters' Houses.
Finally, 72 hectic hours in Berlin before catching the night train to Paris: the one that was cancelled last time (except that it now leaves two and a half hours earlier). This will be very much a scouting exercise for a proper visit later – with eight galleries, four museums, a couple of churches and several other highlights on my list – but of course I shall find plenty of immediate interest. I might even learn something.
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