passing of the Firedragon

despite living in Hong Kong for more than 30years, quite poorly informed of the local customs during traditional festive seasons. one such is the firedragon dance in Tai Hang, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong during the mid-Autumn Festival.
there's this huge dragon, carried by dozens of strong men, meandering through the streets of Tai Hang.
found some info from the Hong Kong Tourism Board here. but as usual, very superficial and lack substance.
the atmosphere was good, and it's good to see there's still so many people out to witness such an event that apparently has been passed on for over a century.

the roar of the engine

the main purpose for our trip to Shanghai was for the F1, and largely due to Michael Schumacher's last appearance in the Shanghai Circuit as a F1 driver before his retirement. whether he is the greatest driver of all times remains debatable, but his presence undoubtedly add plenty of drama in the motorsport.
It was our first time to any F1 circuit, and for the Shanghai circuit, it's about one hour drive from the city centre. we did not get our tickets before coming to the city, and it was quite lucky that the hotel managed to secure a pair of tickets for us eventually at the original price.
the price? really quite expensive, almost 3 times than a ticket to the 1st round World Cup...

expecting the venue to be full of souvenir shops and eating outlets. yes, they had it, only that perhaps even the organiser did not expect a literal full house, the food ran out before the event began. we only managed to grab a few bottles of softdrinks before entering the spectator stand.
the tickets we got for the mainstand was perhaps the closest one can get to the track. Our first time to see the F1 cars in such close proximity, and whats even more pulsating was the deafening roar of the V8 engines!!!

the anticipating crowds played a crucial part in the game. supporters from the Renault and the Ferrari teams were each waving their huge flags. All dressed in either blue or red, it was a race that was crucial to Ferrari in catching up with the current race leader. (of course we know now who's the champion)

Schumacher won in the end after a hard fought battle.
a truly inspiring race!
never give up, as long as the race is still on, there's always a chance.

single move, millions follow

Shanghai, at night, quite a lot of place to hang around to spend your seconds and money. so, Shanghai is probably one of the richest city in China, and definitely one with the most amount of construction in recent years. However, while there are brand name flagship stores here and there, just round the corner, one can find a local noddle shop selling a bowl of noddle in five yuans. maybe most cosmopolitan cities are like this, an almost schzophrenic phenomenon, the richest and the poorest coexist in a not so harmonious way.

the night we were in Shanghai was the night before the Shanghai F1 Gran Prix. Half expected the city would be filled with motor racing fanatics or tourist from all over the world, after having a hairy crab meal, we went down to the Xin Tian di area for a stroll, a very tourist spot where one can mostly see non-chinese customers. down the road, across the street was an official Ferrari Store. went in, took a look, got out without casting another glance - a thousand yuan for a polo t-shirt!!! yet, there were dozens of customers inside, picking the right merchandize, more than ready to dig into their pockets.

need a drink, and not far from it on ma-dang road was this place that shone like a crystal in the dark. Liuligongfang Museum, no windows visible and only a small entrance on its side, mysterious yet tempting. we went in without a second thought.

saturday night, and for this place of such size, the were only 2-3 tables with customers. right, the drinks were not cheap, iced lemon tea can set you back for almost a hundred yuan, but if it's here, there ought to be a customer base, a market, in order for it to survive. but throughou t our two hours stay at the place, the servers definitely outnumbered the served.

nice interior, couldn't have done it better myself. the place was a museum by day, and a bar by night, showcasing hundreds pieces of Liuli - the art of glass.

not a place to miss too, inside the toilet. multiple reflections when one is attending one's private business.

single move, millions follow!

Shanghai, Art Biennale

during the month of October this year, we took a short trip to Shanghai for the weekend. was my first visit to the city, amazed by the number of highrise in the city, the amount of good food available, the price of how some of the restaurants were charging...but best of all, it was time for the 6th Shanghai Art Biennale.

some wonderful works by local chinese and international art community.

still have rooms for improvement, but is already an eye opener.

farewell, berlin, farewell, WorldCup 2006!

Italy became the champion; Zidane got sent off in possibly the most controversial way; Klinsman led Germany to 2nd runner up, none could have predicted that before the tournament; England once again flopped...

a successful tournament all in all, looking forward to the 2010 South Africa World Cup!!!

here ends our trip to Germany, phew! time to move on.

mitte, Berlin

in what was the former East Germany, Mitte has come a long way since the unification of the 2 countries.
lined with designer shops, cafes, bars and interesting inner courtyards, this area worth at least a few days of exploration, and definitely not during a Worldcup when one's mind was still pondering on who entered the last 16!

managed to find some interesting links to this area:

http://uinic.de/berlin-mitte/en/index.html

as it was effectively the last full day of our trip in Germany, we only managed to spend a short few hours in the district which did not do the place justice, before rushing off to Postdamer Platz again for the live coverage of the final group game of France.

give us another reason for revisiting Berlin in the future...

neighbourhood playground

even in a cosmopolitan city like Berlin, there are parks and playgrounds almost everywhere. spoke with a German friend, and it appears that the German governement is doing a lot to help developing the kids. if you look at the innovativetoys still being produced today, products from Germany still top the list. (No, we are not talking about video game consoles! that is a totally different category!)

looking at a playground next to the hotel where we stayed, most of the structures were built and finished with the most natural form of materials, timber. there's no hi-tech swings, or mechanical fittings, but just the good old treehouse with planks and walks, fashioned in a high adventure setting. and there's no safety matting, but just sand, foilage, or cork.

your kids won't learn unless they have a few bumps and scratches, fall to the ground and learn to pick themselves up again.

deutsches historisches museum - I.M.Pei

The museum is housed in the Berlin "Zeughaus", or the arsenal, the oldest building on Unter den Linden. Not only has it an extensive assortments of artefacts detailing the German History, it also has a vast collection of weaponeries, from the early ages through to the 2nd Worldwar. Through the courtyard in centre leads to the new extension, completed in 2004, designed by chinese born, american architect I.M.Pei.

Nice use of materials and manipulation of space.

but, somehow found the public space inside this extension, largely for circulation and waiting, was more impressive than the actual exhibition space inside. which brought the question of which is serving and which is served...

the winding staircase, with its transparent enclosure, was a nice touch to the exterior elevation, but to me, its purpose remains a mystery...

United Buddy Bears in Berlin

on unter den Linden, not only were there the Deutsche Guggenheim Gallery, Staatsbibliothek, the Neue Wache, the Zeughaus, but also tons of Buddy Bears at the Bebelplatz.

there were altogether 142 of them, from different country, painted differently, and have travelled as far as Hong Kong and Tokyo back in 2004 and 2005.

more info on www.buddy-bear.com

quoting from the inside cover page of the special publication for this event:

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein

sunset in Berlin

at the time of writing, the trip to Berlin was already five months ago, but the images i saw, the taste of the food, and the smell of the air, still hangs vividly at the back of my head. seems so near, yet so far.

any experience is memorable because there comes a time when the trip ends, the break overs, and it's time to return to the more routine daily life. but it is exactly because of its limited duration that we would treasure it. when you can have everything you want, there is nothing more you want...

the dinner at the Tele-Cafe was at a surprisingly reasonable price, quite a contrary to what i would expect from a tourist destination. the view was stunning, as the cafe provides a panoramic view in a revolving movement.

only another full day left in Germany before bidding farewell!

Fernsehturm revisited.

very much the one and only landmark you can not miss in Berlin. after leaving the museum island, it was getting late, and although the sun was still not set, after a day's walk of some of the greatest museum, it's time to sit down and have a proper dinner. better still if we could catch the setting sun at Berlin.
the metal sphere was only like this during the WorldCup, at other times, it's simply a sphere with steel cladding.
took us about another half an hour or so on foot to reach here while passing the Alexanderplatz on the way.

Pergamonmuseum - Ishtar Gate

Its name owes to the housing of the famous Pergamon Altar in the main hall. This museum is separated into three independent collections including those of the Greeks & Romans, the museum of Near Eastern Antiquities and the Museum of Islamic Art, results of German extensive archaeological expeditions during the 19th and the early 20th century.

It was quite amazing how could works of such immense scale could travel so long a distance and rest finally here in Berlin. In particular, the Ishstar Gate from Babylon really was an exhibit that one must not miss.

Babylon, a city which once stood in the present day Iraq, was considered one of the most important civilization in ancient history. The hanging garden of Babylon is still being regarded as one of the Seven wonder of the world.

But another piece of history which is probably even more well known was the Tower of Babel - man's attempt in equalling the power of God. while not trying to get too religious here, the reaching of the heavens, or the playing the role of God are not something that is too unfamiliar to us in present days. With advancement in genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, cloning...aren't we, in a unified sort of way, trying to create the Tower of Babel in a way?

Just one side note: for an exhibit as important as this, the exhibition hall was surprisingly bare, and lack proper consideration in bringing out the essence of the Ishtar Gate. I was thinking, if only I could be the designer for the hall, can i do it with greater effect?

a break for lunch.

after leaving behind the Altes Museum, it was already after two in the afternoon, and knowing that we will only have time to visit one more museum for the day, as we walked along the am Kupfer-Graben, we stopped by an Italian restaurant just before reaching the Pergamon Museum and had our lunch.

as said earlier, it seemed that while you were in Berlin, it's way easier to find italian cuisine rather than authentic German food.

Altes Museum

right in front of the lustgarten, the Altes Musuem holds collection of Greek & Roman antiquities, and is a piece of beautiful neo-classical building, with an overwhelming portico held up by 18 Ionic columns.
the bronze figures of Castor and Pollux are featured at the corners of the central building.

Neues Museum

during our visit in the summer, the Neues Museum was under a large scale renovation. heard on the news a few days ago it was officially reopened in November. the renovated museum will have on display collection of Egyptian Art and of those from early history.
incidentally, stumbled onto a site on Museums+Collections which has some useful information on the museums in Berlin.

o, Nefertiti, will come and pay you a visit the next time we visit Berlin again!

Alte Nationalgalerie - the gods

there were many pieces of scultptures worth writing about, but to do so will take months to do it, and what's better than go and visit it yourself? so we shall keep the description of the place to a minimum, and hopefully, our pictures and writings are good enough to arouse your interest at the place.

this sculpture was located near the entrance to the galerie, and with so many to see but so little time (we later found out that apart from a full ticket which allows you to go inside all the museums located on the museum island, there's also another ticket which allows you to visit the place over 3 days, which if you have the time, is definietly worth buying), we skipped the description.

but who can he be?

the eagle, and the God-like character who's chained to a rock, looking up at heaven with a sign of defiant?

who else other than the great Prometheus?

Alte Nationalgalerie

completed in 1876, this building housed a collection of fine arts, particularly of the German Romantic Period as well as some of the finest collection of 19th century sculptures.

One important work is "The Island of the Dead" by Arnold Bocklin which was located on the upper floors. standing there staring at it, there's a mysterious force seemingly pulling one from reality to the picture world, all is silent, except the sound made by the boat gliding through the dark, placid water, signalling an ominous destiny.


what lies ahead? there was not a clue except the distant cries from ravens deep in the woods...

stepping back in time - the road to Museum Island

other than works by masters of the contemporary era, Berlin has a number of old buildings dated back to the 1830s. the Museum Island is one such area which hosts such. Taking the S-bahn and getting off at the Hachescher Markt, it's only walking distance in reaching the Museuminsel. Records suggested that this island might well be the cradle of Berlin's history, and settlements began at 1244 at this very island.
what could be better than housing some of the finest museum in Berlin?

there are 5 musuems on this island, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Altes Museum, Neues Museum, the Pergamonmuseum and the Bode Museum.

Daimler-Chrysler building

pls correct me if i've got this one wrong. believed to be designed by Renzo Piano, this building is situated at the Postdamer Plaz. like the control tower of an intergalatic spaceship, just wondering the type of functions held inside this space?

a massive lawn adjacent (from the look of it, quite manmade) to this long building which can be nice place to take a nap during those long, lazy afternoon.

neue nationalgalerie

designed by one of the most important master of modern architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, this nationalgalerie expressed the essence of "less is more". the generous headroom, an entirely transparent skin, together with the bold structure are all the elements that made up this piece of powerful architecture.

he died in 1969, and this was his last work, a monument to modern architecture.

the dividing wall

the wall that once divided the east and west now becomes a statement of the past, marking an eventful era of the past.

how many blood has shed?
how many dreams were shattered?
how many families were separated?

all those are history now...
and you can bring a piece of history home from the Checkpoint Charlie museum at EUR 7.00 for a piece of the wall...

welcome to democracy.
welcome to consumerism!

inside the jewish museum

if you were awarded to design for a museum, what would you do? check the possible future exhibits and design a space that would suit these items? a more universal space which can suit all kinds of exhibition? or disregard the exhibits, and design a space that can speak for itself even without the exhibits?

sometimes the decision is not for you to make, but a request from the client. architects are mere mortals, and we do have limitations.

when i was in the Jewish Museum, i had the strange feeling of mismatch between the vessel and the exhibits. with the Museum exerting a solemn, and heavy air, the exhibits were without emotion and sometimes even lighthearted...

nothing wrong with that, maybe it's just me...

how the space was designed and how the windows were positioned was quite amazing.

jewish museum

an eyecatching piece of architecture by Daniel Libeskind. (the hyperlink takes you to his own website, which has a simple but interesting layout which is worth visiting also) "Between the lines" the theme used throughout in this project by the architect, to reflect the tensions of German-Jewish history.

from exterior to interior, there were numerous intrigue space to explore, how the planes met, where the lines were drawn, and how is a volume of space accentuated by depriving the space of light except at the apex of its height...

the museum alone is definitely not a piece to be missed if one is ever on the German soil. the exhibition gives a good account of the jewish history in the territory, however, there's some mismatch in the tone of the presentation of the exhibits and this piece of architecture.

folding all over

time to talk about the hotel we stayed during our visit in Berlin.
The Q! Hotel in Berlin, winner of numerous interior design award, took what's wall and what's floor to a new dimension.
for the furnitre, floor finish, wall finish, or even ceiling finish, they were all covered with the same material, marmoleum floor covering by Forbo, and gave a seamless continuity where one can no longer distinguished the difference between one face from another.
the price is for one night is high, not unexpected considering the hotel is frequently visited by fashion desingers, celebrities.

definitely worth a visit if u can spend a night there, and btw, the breakfast they served is excellent!

flashing facade

in any major cities, one sight one can not escape is the use of state of the art LED lighting. its lifespan long, able to produce spectrum of colours, and can even orchestrated into a light show with proper programming. the problem is, while our cities become increasingly more colourful, our sense becomes more numb as we are losing our feelings towards some of these vibrant but meaningless pixels.

so when we saw this SPOTS installation at The Park Kolonnaden complex at Postdamer Platz, were instantly attracted to it. so it doesn't have colour, but its simplicity made the message stood out. the system apparently employed DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) system and able to capture images and redisplay them on the facade. interestingly enough, it is using none other than ordinary fluorescent tubes, the magic lies in the electronic control gear (ECG).

postdamer platz at night

during the worldcup period, if you couldn't book a ticket to enter the stadium and watch the match live, or that you didn't want to stay in the hotel to watch the tiny television, the best place to be, if you were in Berlin, was the Postdamer Platz.

you paid for an entry fee so that you could get a seat at the atrium where the huge television screen was. the price included food and drinks and were not overpriced, something we appreciated a lot. Germany was serious and focus in the events they organized, and they seldom use it as a marketing tool to extract money from visiting tourist.

the place was in fact a cluster of office buildings and entertainment venues, masterplanned by Hilmer, Sattler & Albrecht, the buildings themselves were the works of a number of different architects including names like Renzo Piano, Helmut Jahn, Richard Rogers, Arata Isozaki...etc.

the roof feature added the sense of volume in this space and was lit up with floodlights of various colours, a night marvel in itself.

despair

perhaps one of the most controversial race on earth, the Jewish population has endured some of the most frightening experience during the WW2.

one can read books, watch movies, or even visit historical sites related to the holocaust, but how close could one imagine or even attempting to understand the fear, hopelessness, despair that the Jewish people experienced?

went into the Memorial to the Murdered Jews around 3pm on a sunny weekday, at the height of the WorldCup fever, yet, once you entered the orthogonal laybirith, with the floor undulating in unexpected ways, and the concrete columns suddenly towering over you at the heart of the installation, the chill that sent thru your spine, so many people around you yet you can not see them, hearing voices muttering but not knowing their whereabout, one was suddenly catpulted back to a dimension where there was no hope, and the future was bleak...

other than a piece of work by Tadao Ando in Himeji i visited years ago that gave me such a strong impact, this installation has hit home a sensation that can not be described in words...i was speechless, and felt that i was among the Jews, waiting to be escorted to the path of utter darkness...

this is the power of architecture.

the murdered jews...

maybe due to the kind of media exposed to, or never have been to one of the built works, or indifference to his architectural philosophy in relation to the complexity theory, never particularly liked Peter Eisenman's works.

after visiting the memorial of murdered jews in Berlin, however, have somehow changed my attitude towards his work.

there's a certain delicate treatment to the seemingly unimaginative rows of upright concrete slab. from a distance, it was overwheming due to its sheer size, and monumental solemness. but it's only when you enter this concrete maze, then you realize it's more than what one could anticipate...

leading to nowhere...

there was a whole lot of architecture to be seen close to the Brandengurger Tor, and any attempt to see all in one day would simply spoil the marvels. it was a hot day, and we were dying for a drink, walked past this building, not knowing what it was, but could see a bookshop, a bar and some funny looking installation through the curtain wall on the front. unlike some of the buildings nearby (as it was already 5 in the afternoon), the doors were unlocked, we entered, and found out this was actually the akademie der kunste. not that we didn't know it exist before hand, but our main objective after visting the Brandengurger Tor was actually the Memorial to the Murdererd Jews. so discovering the akademie was a pleasant surprise.

there was an exhibition going on with large scale installations, some rather interesting works. but it was this staircase which caught my attention most...

of this building, everything seems to be very architectural of the contemporary era, steel staircase, angled glass, white walls, self-leveled flooring, slanted furniture...and suddenly, saw a staircase which was totally unsimilar to any of its surroundings, something from another moment in history...made me wonder was this all that remains from its previous incarnation, or was it a replica of somewhere inserted into this space?

took the steps, heard sound from above, anticipating an encounter of of an unusal kind...

Brandengurger Tor

what once stood in East Germany and overlooking the many events happened before the removal of the Berlin Wall, this Neo-classical structure, modelled after the Athenian Propylaea, with Victoria, the goddess of victory, driving the Quadriga.

located at the end of Unter den Linden.

there was a very useful tourist information centre just by the side of the gate which has ample information on architecture, but watch out for the date when it is closed!

light & transparency

the massive mirror fixture, apart from giving some very nice reflections through its tilted angle fixings and becoming the central focus of the enclosure, serves another purpose of bringing in the natural day light through to the assembly hall below.

the glazed roof of the hall, which is transparent for the public to look into, perhaps symbolize the transparency of the government...but while you can see inside, you can't really hear what's going on inside, a bit ironic...

while expecting the details to be hinged of joints, and allow the fixings to a certain degree of movement, was surprised to see most are welded joints...

Reichstag, New German Parliament

designed by Foster and Partners of United Kingdom, this piece of architecture easily top the list of must visit site in Berlin. it's free of charge to get in, but due to all the security check, expect to queue outside for a bit before you are eventually admitted into the premises.

once inside, the elevator will take you to the roof of where the iconic copola is. there is plenty of information regarding the background of this project listed in the architect's homepage.

the day when we visited was at the height of summer, and this glass structure was in fact not air-conditioned but relying on stack effect and natural ventilation through the openings on the screen. was it effective? of course not as comfortable as a fully air-conditioned building, but comparing to the heat on the street, this was not so bad.

2 parallel running ramps encircle the inside skin of this architecture and can take you all the way to the top, which is opened to the sky, uncovered! quite a surprise.

this place deserves another entry to talk about.

Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus

while the taxi in Berlin is of reasonable rate, and the S-bahn and U-bahn are both efficiently run, it is expected of the general public that plenty of travelling are to be done on foot, and it often has signs saying 400m to Point A, 300m to Point B...etc. which is good for urban dwellers who are so lack of moderate exercise anyway.

on the way to the Reichstag, there's a route which took one along side the river Spree. Clean, institutional architecture set the backdrop for the walk.



we had some difficulty in identifying this project as not many books or literature covered it. apparently it housed the library and reference section for the Chancellery nearby.

architect for the project is Stephan Braunfels.

Fernsehturm in the distance

one of the landmark in Berlin, the Fernsehturm in the Mitte area.

my first thought was that any spy movies must have a go at this TV Tower especially in the 70s, as it does give a certain aura of that time. The mainbody has the look of a football, most probably 3M stickers being put on for the 2006 WorldCup.

incidentally, the TV tower was built between 1965 to 1969 by the GDR (German Democratic Republic), or better known as, East Germany.

and that certainly gives you another motive to visit it.

this picture was taken when we just got off the S-Bahn Friedrichstr station on our way to Reichstag.

from Leipzig to Berlin

the journey lasted for about an hour.

once out of the station, either side of the train opened up to a vast field of greens. occasionally came in to view were the wind turbines.

as common to the very essence of daily life, Germany is meticulously conscious on the energy efficiency and green issues: escalators come into life only when a person approaches; lights dimmed down or switched off when no one is in the corridor, actuated most probably by motion sensor and dimmable energy efficient T-5 fluorescent tubes; parking meters are operating on solar energy. the people as well as the country are well aware of energy saving issues and utilizing alternative energy other than fossil fuels.

in contrast, while claiming as World City, Hong Kong is quite backward in energy concerned issues, just how many buildings were designed to tackle the punishing heat of the summer sun other than using an even more powerful air conditioner to cool down the air? the excessive light shows, which are burning the valuable fuels everynight, to signal that the city is prosperous, advanced, that we bring light to darkness, water to the desert, what cost there is to the environment?

China is catching up in an extremely fast pace in terms of car ownership, and is in the process in striking a new deal with the Venezuelan government on the supply of petroleum...

are we heading the right directions?

the lighted window

the weather changes according to different seasons, mirco climates, radiation of the Sun, reaction forces between planets, or as far fetched to the vibration of a pair of butterfly wings.

can it be accurately predicted, presumably yes in theory, if you have a way to store in all the data that is happening in the universe, from Time-Zero to the moment you want to know the result. But if we accept that the universe is infinitely large, then things happened at all corners (or will there actually be corners?) of the universe needs to be recorded on a machine that has infinite capacity...

"tempermental as weather", that's how we describe the mood of a person which is unpredictable.
the question is, is a person's mood really unpredictable?

many years ago, saw a documentary by QED of England, citing a person was charged with murder, but defense claimed that the man on trial was subjected to a chemical spillage, and the chemicals he inhaled affected his brain, therefore, his decisions and subsequent actions. guilty or not was a legal issue, but suppose we understand the effect of such chemicals and how it will affect a person's mind, can we then, theoretically, predict the mood of a person if we understand all circumstances, actions affecting that person before he/ she swings into a certain mood?

why am i writing this?

affected by the picture in front of me.

why was there someone still working at the height of the WorldCup fever?

thousands of possibilities were already crawling towards the window...

one of final pictures we took the night before we leave Leipzig the next day.

after the storm

once again, the universal rule of duality that exists. if you have not experienced the fury of the storm, how could you appreciate the calmness that comes after? if there is no darkness, how could there be light?

for knowing the sweet taste of victory, one must have fallen in countless battles before...
Nature operates the antagonistic yet symbiotic duality like clockwork, so how could we expect our life could escape from this universal rule?

if you are not prepared to get hurt, how could you ever gained the experience you need and search for that Holy Grail in your life?

slightly off topic, but am just annoyed by individuals who moaned all day in their armchairs, complaining that their talents were not recognized, or that opportunities never knocked on their doors, when in fact, they ought to get up, fist tightened, and go out to battle in the storm...

blackness engulfing the land

no wonder Germany is filled with so many fairy tales...
the skyline was transformed within minutes, storm gathering from the east, spreading like wildfire through the forest, and turned the sky into pitch black in the blink of an eye...

City Hochhaus

for individuals who are used to life in the cities, especially Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York...etc, the city high rise did not strike too much of an impression. however, located at the top of the building is the Panorama Restaurant serving quality fine dining and literally provides a panoramic view of the city. and it is exactly because there is a lack of highrise nearby, the expansive views at the top was simply breathtaking.

quite ironic...

we witnessed the dramatic changes of weather like those described in a fairy tale. will talk about it in the next post.

Petersbogen, time travel

a new piece of construction, claimed to be "...Leipzig's most architecturally modern passage..." according to the City Guide.

while Petersbogen was indeed quite different from its surroundings, its architecture was not unfamiliar, lined with shops on either side, the walk was less captivating than the Madler Passage UNTIL one reached the end with the Neues Rathus suddenly towering in front.
it felt as if we were inside a time travelling machine, arrived at a time of ancient romance, ready for an adventure once stepped outside...

Maggi Kochstudio at Petersbogen

Madler Passage

located along in an unconspicuos spot the Grimmaische Strabe just off the Markt lies the fully covered shopping arcade, most likely built pre-war, but just how long ago? need to find some more info on this.

the interesting bar Mephisto and restaurant Auerbach’s Keller are both worth visiting.

legend also has it that touching the foot of Faust's statue at the entrance of the passage can bring good luck...but at what cost? like that in the legend of Faust and Mephistopheles?

the Markt, a momentary pause

maps folded in hand, we were exploring the area in an unplanned sequence. venturing into areas which attracted our attention. in contrary to city like Berlin, Leipzig has retained almost in a complete package buildings of similar era. if it were not the presence of the amount of tourists on the streets, one could have catapulted back to a time centuries ago.

...

could hear faint music resulted from the tender hands on a seasoned piano. i looked up, could not find where exactly the music was from, but it appeared that it must have been the top floors as while all windows were shut, there was one which was slightly opened, as if to let the music to escape from the dark interior.

there was no more noise on the pavement, not a single soul to be seen, all was quiet, not even the clouds were moving, the scene was frozen in that instant.

the melancholy melody continued to flow through the air.

i hesitated and wondered if i was meant to venture to the heart of where the music was and greet this mysterious figure in the dark...

Leipzig museum der bildenden künste

huge museum for arts, and an intricately designed building facade.
but mark these words even if you never thought you need to know the German language:

Montag geschlossen.

meaning, Monday closed.

well, that provided us with another reason to return to Leipzig in the future.

Zentral Stadion, Leipzig

quite a piece of stunning architecture. this stadium was integrated into the former stadium, and to reach it, one must travel across a vast piece of greens, climb the steps over the hill, and then, there it was, like a piece of alien spaceship landed on a crater.