On Sebastian-Bach Straße, in the east German city of Leipzig, are a number of fabricated units or mobile homes. They are the temporary abode of the young members of the world-famous St Thomas Boys Choir, which the great Johann Sebastian Bach used to premier e most of his masterpieces.
Harmony and tranquillity are a hallmark of delightful Leipzig with its magnificent architecture, beautiful malls, fantastic entertainment and good food
The young boys in their navy blue sailor suits hope to move from their temporary Forum Thomanum to their permanent school round the corner, now being renovated, in the first half of next year.
This is a special year for the choir, which is celebrating its 800th anniversary.
Music is everywhere in Leipzig: there are 23 historic sites on a five-kilometre-long walking music trail that has just been launched.
The great composer’s genius would have probably remained unknown had it not been for Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who had ‘rediscovered’ Bach or, rather, revived his works.
Goldschmidtstraße 12 is Mendelssohn’s only remaining private address, having lived there from 1845 until his death two years later. There he hosted famous contemporaries, the likes of Robert and Clara Schuman and Richard Wagner.
Wagner was born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813, and spent his adolescence there. An exhibition, themed The Young Richard Wagner – 1813 until 1834, will be mounted in a museum being built in the basement of the Old St Nicholas School, which Wagner attended between 1828 and 1830.
The music trail will take you past St Nikolai church, where the Monday prayers used to be held. The peace movement that started there in 1982-1983, when the superpowers were installing missiles, strengthened during the Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989, culminating in an uncontrollable peaceful force that spread across Germany, leading to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the country’s reunification.
Harmony and tranquillity are a hallmark of this delightful city with its magnificent architecture, beautiful malls, fantastic entertainment and good food.
Having always associated the Germans with beer, sausages and sauerkraut, I was very surprised to learn that in the Leipzig area coffee/tea and cake/chocolate would be the preferred choice. Having tasted them, I can understand why!
But that was nothing compared with pleasures yet to come, including an 11-course meal in a three-star Michelin restaurant as part of a three-day Culinary Germany tour.
The ‘good life’ started in Cologne, not far from the majestic cathedral that took 632 years to build. Built in glass and metal in the form of a ship, the Chocolate Museum was opened on October 31, 1993.
About 400kg of chocolate are processed daily in this smaller version of a chocolate processing plant. There you learn all there is to know about chocolate and, what’s more, you can taste it... for free.
It’s a short drive from busy Cologne to Bad Neuenahr, a spa town in the Ahr valley and its many vineyards. Another ride in an impeccably-maintained vintage coach, which reminded me of the old Maltese buses, took us from our hotel to the Zur Alten Post restaurant.
The place is owned and run by Hans Stefan Steinheuer, one of Germany’s top chefs, and his wife Gabriele.
On the menu: four types of wine to wash down a nine-course meal, including foie gras slice with ginger, salted almonds and medlars, and roast saddle of venison, young cabbage, pepper-brioche and bayleaf jus.
Food, more glorious food, was to follow. In higher doses too!
In Wolfsburg, a medieval castle dating back to the 1300s stands in sharp contrast with the modern structures that have been erected in this northern German city over the past 70 years.
At the Autostadt, where the train stops, Volkswagen has a huge plant including two high towers where new cars sit as they wait for their owners to pick them up.
This attracts many visitors from across Germany but also from abroad. They all need to be fed and the Autostadt has nine restaurants, providing about 4,000 meals a day.
At the Chardonnay restaurant, under the watchful eyes of chef Daniel Kluge, we were served two types of wine: 2010 Chardonnay ‘kalkstein’ and 2009 Herrenberg Merlot.
The food started with a confit tartare of young vegetables with wild herbs and poached egg. This was followed by pink roasted saddle of may-roebuck from the local forests with spruce-shoots gravy, celery cream and young turnips.
For the vegetarians there were spinach-ravioli with foam of vegetables and leek.
To wrap up: mousse cupcake of rhubarb with pistachio ice cream.
This is what I would call being pampered, I said to myself as I inspected some very old Volkswagen models. Little did I know what was coming my way.
I walked to my room in the nearby Ritz-Carlton, a top hotel right opposite a refurbished old power house no longer used to generate electricity. The setting is relaxing and luxurious.
After a brief rest and some freshening up, it was time for more food. The Aqua restaurant is run by Svern Elverfeld, 43, who had been voted Chef of the Year in 2004 and 2007 and fourth best chef in Germany in 2009. The place ranks 22nd in St Pellegrino’s 50 World’s Best Restaurants list and has enjoyed three Michelin star status in Guide Michelin since November 2008.
Wine from Germany, Austria and France flowed freely and the variety of dishes was far too wide to list here. There was soup, beef tartare, seafood, snails, asparagus, langoustine, belly of young pork and lamb, just to give an idea of what was on the menu.
Halfway through I just could not handle any more food and asked to be excused. The best is saved for last, the host pointed out, so he would advise I stayed. I did and how right he was!
This is what I would call being pampered, I said to myself as I inspected some very old Volkswagen models. Little did I know what was coming my way
Next on the itinerary was Osnabrück, where talks leading to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, ending the 30 Years War, had taken place. In one of the narrow roads there lies La Vie restaurant that was awarded its third Michelin star only last November.
Its owner, Thomas Bühner, opened the place in April 2006, when it was given two stars.
Germany has nine three-star restaurants in Europe. Only France has more.
This was the last day of the Culinary Germany tour and what a conclusion it proved to be. On the table were five types of wine and 10 dishes, mainly fish.
Different types of ice cream and iced gariguette strawberries were also served.
Indeed, c’est la vie, or, to say it in German, so ist das Leben!
Key German events in 2013
The following are some key events to be held in Germany next year:
• The 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Élysée: January 22.
• The 150th anniversary of Henry van de Velde’s birth: April 3.
• The 150th anniversary of the death of the Brothers Grimm: April 4 and September 20.
• The 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth: May 22.
• The annual Richard Wagner Bayreuth Festival, billed as the most famous event of its type in the world, and which started in 1876, opens on July 25 and runs through to August 28. The 2013 festival will be showcasing a new production of The Ring of the Nibelung, The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde and Tannhäuser. For more information visit www.bayreuther-festspiele.de.