Yesterday I took advantage of some nice weather and decided to take my bike and ride to get us the tickets for NIGHTWISH gig on 01.05. I even didn’t applied for a photo-pass this time, Yulia and me just wanted to enjoy the gig (she’ll see them for the very first time) and not run around the photo pit. May be I’m going to catch them during their second European tour in 2013, at least I hope so. So I rode across the downtown to Leipzig Arena to buy us tickets and to make some pictures. If you’re in Germany and you see a nice sunny day – move your ass and enjoy it now and I mean it – the sun can disappear in a couple of hours so you better use these short summer experience while you can! :)

Waiting for the green light in Prager Straße. A good bikeway leads from my house to the very downtown, across Johannisplatz to the Augustusplatz which is by the way very close to the main railroad station.

 

Ok, ok, I wait, I have time… I hope for at least 30 more years :)
 

Johannisplatz is right before me and I can see the so-called Uni-Riese or Panorama Tower behind the buildings (link). It’s a famous structure with a cool restaurant standing on Augustusplatz. For 2 Euro you can use an elevator, go up on the roof (I swear my ears got blocked when I first did that, it was like flying on a plane) and enjoy the best Leipzig city view you can find here! It’s beautiful indeed.
 

Standing on the Johannisplatz and here’s the Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde (ethnology museum). The trees are in blossom and my small pocket camera just can’t show you those beautiful colors.
 

On the same position with a different view. Just a minute before Augustusplatz.
 

Now I’m on the Augustusplatz, some kind of Red Square of Leipzig, a big place for the tourists. And it’s literally surrounded with the notable buildings. Let’s move clockwise – the first one is Hochzeitshaus (Wedding House) with a beautiful little clock tower. Every hour two metal guys strike a big bell with the hammers. I’ve seen that 2 or 3 times.
 

Yeah, these two guys.
 

And here’s the Oper Leipzig (opera house) and a fountain in front of it. Doesn’t work yet…
 

…Oh, wait, it does!
 

A strange and very neglected building. All I know about it is there’s a post office.
 

Gewandhaus, a place for classic orchestral concerts and stuff, and the famous Mende Brunnen Denkmal in front of it. The sculpture everybody love to take pictures at :) Somebody would say it’s one of the most remarkable symbols of Leipzig (together with so-called Völkerschlachtdenkmal).
 

A closer look at the Panorama Tower (Uni-Riese). It’s hight, it’s so high that…
 

…it actually covers the sun :)
 

The next building is the most interesting on the square – and the newest one! The University Complex was completely reconstructed and is still not 100% completed. I remember the old University building on its place in 2004… A boring facility with Karl Marx bas-relief above the entrance! That was weird! Well it was before I saw a giant Karl Marx head in Chemnitz town :) Now it’s beautiful and original glass-covered complex and I must say its architect knows how to rock, I already love this structure, it look great in composition with the Panorama Tower.
 

The blue skies make the building’s walls blue… nice.
 

A quick look at the Grimmaische Straße that starts between the University complex and the Hochzeitshaus, but that’s it, I’m not going there :) I’ll try to make a separate post about that part of the city some day.
 

I crossed the street and went to the main railroad station. The Opera House is on my right.
 

A fence with several posters on the way. New MARILYN MANSON album… Honestly I can’t care less. I was such a fan in 1996 but now I just can’t stand this guy who became one of those people he trashed in his early songs. To me he’s like a hero who fought a dragon only to become the next dragon.
 

Oh. My. God. BACKSTREET BOYS and NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK together in one gig. Shoot me :)
 

A city tour bus. This time it’s alone, but sometimes they fly here and there like the bees around the jam pot. All those buses look funny, this one has even an own Facebook “Like” button :)
 

The picture sucks, but I had no time to take a better one. This bus is a Hybrid. A real Hybrid bus! They don’t harm the nature, pretty much like the Hybrid cars. There are not so many of such buses in the city yet, but I’ll try to get into one of them and make a couple of pictures. They look cool inside with a lot of screens and other great sci-fi stuff :) You can also see the main railway station far beyond, but I’m not going to show it here, it’s worth an own article.
 

Rolling along Tröndlinring. There was a big and old Karstadt shop at Goerdelerring, but now it’s rather a huge building site. Thor knows what’s going to be there, I have no idea.
 

The building will have the same nacreous trimming as before, but obviously a shining new one.
 

Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures till the very Arena, because there’s a “wild zone” after Goerdelerring, where it’s pretty much dangerous to ride a bike. There are no bikeways and you have to drive on the same narrow road with the cars, so you temporarily don’t feel like doing photos and more concerned about staying alive :) There’s noting to shoot anyway, it’s just a little street I left behind in just 3 minutes. And here is Leipzig Arena!
 

Two minutes at the ticket office and I got our tickets! The quest is over and I believe on May 1st I’m going to get my 4th NIGHTWISH experience :)