202 Steps

Today's adventures were mostly about music.  And food.  And riding on a train.  And food.

Greetings once again from Leipzig, although from a different hotel than last night.  As I wrote for work last week we always stay at a Motel One when we're in Germany.  The one we usually stay at in Leipzig, the one from which I'm writing this tonight, was booked last night, so we had to stay at another Motel One and then make the transfer to our current one this morning.  It was probably the easiest hotel transfer on record, too, as the Motel One we stayed at last night is right across a church courtyard from the one we're at tonight.

It's just 202 steps away, in fact.  And no, I'm not quite sure why there are two Motel Ones within 202 steps of each other.  I'm just glad, for the ease of the move this morning, that they are.

We had one big outing today, as well as a bunch of little ones.  The little ones consisted mostly of going back to the grocery stores we scouted out yesterday to purchase the chocolate you all knew we were going to buy.  And buy we did, while at the same time noticing something else--seasonal creep isn't just an American phenomena--

In fact, there are all kinds of holiday items already available in stores here.  One of the weirdest might be (tangentally) related to something I wrote about yesterday.  You know how I couldn't find a cow calendar?  Well, there are plenty of a certain other kind of calendar available, and that being the advent calendar.  They are quite big over here, so much so that you can get any kind of advent calendar that you want, except, alas, a cow advent calendar.  Lest you think I'm bluffing, let me introduce you to the murder mystery advent calendar--

I'm not 100% certain how an advent murder mystery calendar works, although I'm guessing you might receive a clue a day instead of eating a chocolate a day.  At least I'm hoping that's how it works, as I shudder to think that getting a murder a day for 28 days might be a little too much.

After getting the chocolate we need (at least for today) we hopped on a tram (because they have a great tram system in Leipzig, and we bought a seven day pass) and visited the neighborhood of Plagwitz.  If Leipzig is sometimes called "Hypezig", neighborhoods like Plagwitz may be the reason why.  It's that one neighborhood every city seems to have, filled with art, even on the buildings--

Interesting stores-

Interesting places to eat-

Interesting ways to party the night away-

And, well, ads at the tram stop for your local, uhm, S&M  club-

Remember, kids.  Always practice safe tram stop ad viewing.

8-)

And now for something completely different.  When we were here in 2019 we noticed a young Leipzig University student making a little money the way many students do around here, by busking on the street.  However, what made this young man stand out out was that he was busking while playing the marimba-

Flash forward three and a half years, and who did we happen to see still busking?  Why, it would be Marimba Man-

Actually, his name is Martin Rihards.  How do I know?  Well, because we bought his CD-

After all, how often do you have the chance to buy a CD from a marimba-playing street busker who you saw three and a half years after first seeing him?  And while we haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, I'm sure I'll be quite intrigued by his marimba-filled take on Tones & I's "Dance Monkey".

In fact, I think it's safe to say that it might be the most unique piece of music I might hear all year.

Finally, Loraine and I had our annual Italian dinner date tonight.  This is a tradition that we started the first time we came over here, and tonight saw Loraine drinking strawberry-rhubarb lemonade-

And me getting to sample gnocchi with zucchini and shrimp in a walnut cream sauce-

Tomorrow we're thinking of hopping aboard the tram again, this time to possibly visit the second highest point in Leipzig--a mountain built atop the trash & wreckage left by World War II.

That's something you don't get to see in too many places.

(jim@wmqt.com)