The finally staying in Berlin summer is in full bloom and it happened to me, that I didn’t go outside the city for five weeks, so my feet was more than itchy. My initial wish for this summer was going more around Berlin, which doesn’t happen as much as I want to, and the greatest of them all is going to Aarhus, I have a master plan, just waiting for the perfect timing.

As spontaneous as one can be in Berlin because of over the celling train prices, we scored good tickets to Leipzig combining Flix Bus and Deutsche Bahn for the way back. In total we stayed 12 hours, it was the hottest summer day so far, but we had great time. I’ve been to Leipzig not so long ago but in November, and I knew the city deserved a sunny day tour. On the I am old side of the mind, i was today’s years old when I found out Leipzig is called Hypezig, is the new cool city in Germany or as many people want to say it is the new Berlin.

Area wise, Leipzig’s main train station is the biggest in Europe, but very easy for navigating as all the platforms are on the same level, we started our tour from here in the direction of the first coffee of the day that we had in Franz Morish cafe. Nice industrial style cafe, this part of the city is not very touristy, so unless you go for particular spot, there is nothing much to do around. On the way there we passed by Rossplatz, which had some cool buildings looking a like the big block of East German buildings on Karl Marx Allee in Berlin.

Then we continued to the direction of Plagwitz, but in order to get there you had to pass through the old town, which on Saturday morning is not the most pleasant place to be, because of the shopping crowds, however we admired some beautiful buildings as the Riquet Cafe, and some nice Gallery Passages. The nice thing about Leipzig is that you can constantly walk through a park, and almost always be surrounded by water.
A street that was nice, full of bars and restaurants was Gottschedstraße, and still a bit away of the city crowds, here is situated one of the best places for pizza in Germany (even though a chain) – 60 seconds to Napoli. Another nice spots in this area were Rotorbooks bookstore and its neighbour Café Tunichtgut, and you could already feel how the crowds are becoming more and more distant.

The next point of our route was leading us through Johann park with the impressive Japanese style wooden bridge over a lake and we reached the museum for contemporary art (GFKZ). In the area of the musem lies the Kapital cafe, and one even cooler spot, the Backstein bakery. The line for pizza and pastries was pretty long, and the only line we saw in the city. Unfortunately we were full, but this is the first place on the top of the list for our next visit.

After a longer walk of more than 30 minutes we finally reached the area of the day, first admiring all the buildings on the water, questioning ourselves if we should move here, but only on the water, strolling along more kanals (Karl-Heine canal super much worth the visit) with glimpse of the local’s life we reached the “spinnerei”, event space with bars, cinemas, dancing spots and many other cultural things, but it was also time to slow down and enjoy one of its gardens.
This area of the city, Lindenau has plenty of abandoned spots turned into cultural venues, you just need to find what is according your taste.

We’ve spent the afternoon mainly strolling and checking out all the streets of Lindenau, and decided to hide from the heat in Zum Wilden Heinz, garden with bar and street food options it was great place and what surprised me cards were accepted. Of course we’ve checked out the Kaiserbad and the Westwerkhalle Plagwitz with all the cool graffiti corners and bookshops.

I liked this area a lot, even though I had the impression there were more people in November than now, but maybe not everyone was crazy to go out in the heat, many places were opening from 6PM, so probably that is something to have in mind, and visit this part of town in the afternoon.

Our self-tailored walking tour led us through the park again along the Elsterflutbett, to one of the busiest streets in town, in the southern part, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, or shortly said Karli. The street had every type of restaurants, but what caught my attention is that there were many deli stores, and concept stores. We had a break at Feinkost Roseling, it’s neighbour unluckily closed was super sweet concept store Sudseite, judging by the windows, one of the nicest shops in the city.

Then we thought we will stroll a bit through the old town in the evening, but spotted that Renkli Restaurant was open, and there was free table, so we ended our little escape with beef tartare here. The place is also great just for drinks and people watching.
And as you can notice I didn’t mention any of the sightseeing spots of the city, of course there are and we saw the new and old city hall, the St Thomas church, and buildings along the road, but we went mainly for the soul of the city, and to check whether the hype is real.
We’ve skipped the “main” tourist spot, Völkerschlachtdenkmal – the biggest war memorial in Europe, as it was too far, for this time, I would have rather gone to the Cospudener See but the list just got longer for the next time.

Accommodation wise here are some suggestions around town:
Spirit Lodge – a bit unconventional every room is different, located in the heart of Lindau
Philippus Inklusionshotel Leipzig – in the same area, beautiful hotel with included breakfast and one of the best ratings
Seaside Park Hotel Leipzig – for more central location next to the central station