• Old Town Hall

Leipzig's Old Town Hall was built in 1556 in the Renaissance style and remains one of Germany's largest. Located on the pretty main square of the city, it's a good orientation point

The Old City Hall was built 1556 by Hieronymus Lotter on basements of two Patrician houses. It is a beautiful Renaissance style building, 90 meters long with arcades (1906 - 09), six gables and a tower. In the 18th century the tower was enlarged and it received a Baroque spire. Until 1904 the Old City Hall was home of the city administration. Then it became home of the city museum.

Most impressive is the huge Banquetting Hall with Renaissance interior (open fireplaces). I was surprised by the many fine works of medieval religious art: altars, paintings, wood-carved sculptures etc. Most of them were saved from churches which were deconstructed in Leipzig's surrounding. Very impressive are the rooms with interior from old Patrician houses. I also liked the treasure chamber (steep and narrow staircase!). Entrance fee is 2.50 Euro

This Renaissance building was erected in just nine month in 1556/57 under the direction of the architect Hieronymus Lotter. The municipal government moved into the New Town Hall in the year 1909. If you have a bit of luck you are allowed to visit the cellar of the building. Here you find the chamber of torture and the jail.

Old City Hall: Leipzig's Renaissance City hall. Contains a museum of city history which possesses the original of the only confirmed painting of Bach produced in his lifetime. It also contains interesting information regarding the public executions that previously took place in the market in front of the city hall. The most famous execution was that of Woyzeck later made famous by the Büchner play and the opera of Alban Berg.

The interior of the Old City Hall (built in 1556) was far more interesting of the outside view for me, however charming the latter may be. Inside there's an interesting museum covering the history of Leipzig from the very beginnings (in 12th century) till our days. One of the most touristy places of the whole city.

• Auerbach's Keller[5]

This pub has been around since medieval times. Opened in 1525, it is among the oldest continuously operated pubs in Germany. The barrel cellar has been the background to a scene in one of Germany's most famous plays, "Faust" by Goethe[6]. The master of German literature himself used to drink his wine here, and the rooms are frequently the set for a live, around-the-city re-enactment of the play. (on the expensive side)

• Christmas Market

As in many other German cities, Leipzig hosts the Leipziger Weinachtsmarkt, or Leipzig Christmas Market, which opens in the last week of November, first week of December and continues until a few days before Christmas Day. The Leipzig Christmas Market is a major event in the city and is essentially a large winter-themed carnival, complete with a giant Ferris Wheel on Augustusplatz in between the Opera House and the Gewandhaus, carrousels and other small rides in addition to the usual market stalls and food vendors. The festivities take place throughout the inner city of Leipzig, with a majority of the market stalls stationed on Market Square in front of the Old Town Hall, but also on Petersstrasse, Grimmaischestrasse and Nikolaistrasse next to the Nikolai Church. The market stalls sell a variety of gifts unique to the Ore Mountain region south of Leipzig, as well as various traditional market foods such as fried potato pancakes (kartoffelpuffers), heurigen (roasted roll with cheese and meat) and glühwein (a spiced heated wine). There are also carolers and Christmas-themed events.

• Leipzig Zoo

The Leipzig Zoo is one of the largest and best known in Germany. It has a very long tradition and is currently undergoing a major re-design. Already finished constructions include the new elephants' enclosure with a swimming pool where you can watch the elephants bathing from under the water level, the monkey house and a open-plan, safari-style Africa landscape. [7]

• Botanical Garden in Leipzig

This botanical garden belongs to Leipzig University. It's the oldest one in Germany and one of the first in the world. [8]

• Museum of Fine Arts [9]

• Museum of Applied Arts and Museum of Ethnology both under Grassi Museum [10]

• Schiller House, Mendelssohn House, Schumann House All used to live and create in Leipzig. Mendelssohn's concert hall, the Gewandhaus is still active today near Leipzig's market place.

• St. Thomas Church and Bach Museum [11] The church where Bach worked for most of his life hosts a museum to the greatest German composer of all times. This is also where Bach himself is buried.

• Museum at the Round Corner [12] An interesting museum documenting the Stasi (DDR secret police) headquarters in Leipzig. Very interesting (and free!) if you can understand German, but there is not much English inside.

• Voelkerschlachtdenkmal A huge monument commemorating the Battle of Leipzig in the Napoleonic Wars, a major defeat for Napoleon. It was later expanded to its present monsterous proportions. A must see!

• Hauptbahnhof impressive at 26 platforms, with the most expensive station toilets in Western Europe, at €1.10 a tinkle

• The Mendelssohn Music College

• Nikolaikirche

• Naturkundemuseum The nature museum, filled with all kinds of taxidermy creatures. Only 2 Euro.

Leipzig is a transportation hub in Saxony.

By car

Leipzig can easily be reached by car, as it is very well connected with the Autobahn highway system. The nearest Autobahn highways are A14 (North, Northeast), A9 (West) and A38 (South).

By train

Using high speed InterCityExpress (ICE) trains, Frankfurt can be reached in 3.5 hours, Munich less than 4.5 hours, Hamburg in 3 hours and Berlin a little over an hour. Also good connections to Prague, requiring a change in Dresden. The largest terminal railway station in Europe, Leipzig's Hauptbahnhof (Europe's largest railway station at 26 platforms) is also home to a fairly large shopping mall, a good way to waste away an hour or two between connections.

By plane

The airport of Leipzig-Halle [2] is the second biggest airport in Eastern Germany after [Berlin] and offers few direct connections to Paris and tourist destinations around the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Domestic destinations include Frankfurt, Munich, Dresden, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Hamburg. Berlin is just one hour away by highspeed train ICE so flying to Berlin can be more cost efficient.

The airport of Altenburg-Nobitz [3] is 50 km south of Leipzig and offers direct connections to Edinburgh, Girona-Barcelona and London (Stansted).

There is a good public transportation system operated by the LVB [4]. Many trams and buses are available - each mostly every 10 minutes during day and at least hourly at night. A 1 hour ticket costs 2€. After 8pm you have to enter buses at the drivers door and show/purchase your ticket.

• lots of shops in the inner city (city center), mostly frequented by pedestrians
• some bigger malls outside, e.g. "Paunsdorf Center" in the east
• The Hauptbahnhof is not only one of the biggest train stations in Europe, it's a great shopping mall as well

(On three floors boutiques and restaurants are located next to drug stores and supermarkets)

• shopping for Leipzig and Germany souvenirs around the Old City Hall
• Fresh Food Market near Leipzig Central Stadium on Saturdays

• Check out the inner city with many bars, pubs and cafés.
• There are some excellent and cheap restaurants to be visited in the Südvorstadt, for example "Tobagi" with Korean food on Riemannstrasse, as well as "Saffron" on Karl Liebknecht-strasse, which has great Indian food.
• and you also have to try a speciality of Leipzig: Lerchen (a sweet dough-wicker)

• Moritzbastei: very old and big student club; Universitätsstraße 9 (inner city)
• Barfussgaesschen: a small street with a lot of pubs and bars (inner city)
• Dark Flower: gothic music and dark wave, on Thursday rock music; moved to Hainstraße 12 - 14 (inner city)
• Sixtina: select from the largest number of different brands of absinth in a building from the 16th century; Katharinenstraße 11 (inner city)
• Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse ("Karli"): the street starts in the south of the inner city and leads you to Südvorstadt and Connewitz (student and alternative quarters); along the street you can find a lot of pubs, bars, cafés and restaurants and also some smaller dance clubs; very international
• Try and find a bar that serves Gose, the world's most obscure beer. It's made with coriander and salt, and is very much an acquired taste.