We're Never Going Bach

One of Kelly's strongest wishes on this trip is to go to Leipzig and visit the grave of Johann Sebastian Bach.  Kelly, one of our two resident classical music expert daughters, tells us that JSB is the father of modern music and the most influential classical composer.  We boarded an ICE train and headed to Leipzig.  The Leipzig train station is one of the largest in Europe and contains the priciest washrooms in Europe (Mr. Klean) and biggest Starbucks we have ever seen.  

We tracked down a tram and headed to Thomaskirche where Bach was a choirmaster, composer and just about anything else.  The church itself is fairly plain when compared to some of the bling encrusted we have visited lately.

 And there near the alter was the resting place of good old JSB.  Mind you they are not sure, JSB was not super popular immediately after his death.  He was buried in a simple cemetery.  When his music was rediscovered one hundred or so years later they dug around and found three skeletons, and using the scientific method of seeing which one looked most like the paintings of Bach, they re-interred him near the alter.  

Having paid our respects we headed across the street to the small and amazing Bach museum.  Aside from some original Bach manuscripts (priceless) there are many fun and inter-active exhibits.  For example, in a room housing all of the instruments used during Bach's lifetime you could press a button and hear what part this instrument played in this particular piece of music.  Not knowing much about JSB we came away much more knowledgeable.   Bach was extremely prolific, having written literally many hundreds of pieces of music to say nothing of his family of 20 kids.  

We stopped in at Coffe Baum which is reputed to be the oldest coffee house still in use in Europe. We finished our snacks which came with a side order of surly service and headed back to the train station. 

As our train was scheduled to leave at 16:31we stopped in at Starbucks to relax. Arriving on the platform with 15 minutes to spare we stood and waited for our train, and waited, and waited.......

The electronic board kept us informed, 20 minutes late, 30 minutes, 40 minutes late, 60 minutes late, then it dropped right off the board. We had noticed that no trains had pulled in or left our part of the station while we were waiting and panic was beginning to set in. Checking the schedule board we found a regional train that was leaving in 15 minutes on a track down the way.  Judy fought for a seat for the three of us and we were ready to go.  It was late when we got home and we were starved and thirsty.  Fortunately there was a Hofbrauhaus near our hotel.  All that hype about German trains always running on time is about as true as anything that comes from Donald Trump's mouth.