After saying a sad goodbye in Hamburg to our friends living in London, we hopped on the train with our Leipzig pals to stay with them for a few days. Apart from Berlin, we had never been to (former) East Germany before and were curious to see what it was like.

Leipzig is in the Saxony region of Germany, not far from Dresden. It was bigger and more populous than I had expected and really lively thanks to a reasonably large student population. The city has a pretty revolutionary past, being involved in the fall of the East German regime and the fall of communism.

There is a really interesting feel to the city, partly to do do with the young population and partly with the injection of capital by the government. There’s quite a fun melding of old and new.

Our friends live in the Connewitz suburb of Leipzig, a short stroll from public transport, parks and a sweet stretch of cafés, restaurants and shops.

The centre of town is really pretty with many more old buildings than I expected. The architecture is definitely Germanic, but different in some subtle way to the cities in the west that I was used to (Köln, München). There was a market in the main square with lovely fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers.

We wandered, chatted and drank the local beer – I love the way each city or town or region in Germany has it’s own special beer!