Yesterday we spent the day in Florence and I have to confess that Florence has not been my most favourite Italian city as I have only been there when it has been hot and crowded. But I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it can be when cool and fairly empty of people. We visited Orsanmichele which was just beautiful and had a nice holy feel (I like that in a church). We also saw an interesting Bronzino fresco (one of my favourite painters) in the church of San Lorenzo and a nice fresco by Botticelli (another one) in the Organissanti Church. Hugh got a groovy Italian haircut while we waited for the last church to open. I found a wonderful English bookshop and traded in some old books for some new ones. I was getting a bit twitchy without anything to read.
We then crammed into a six berth sleeping car on the overnight train to Germany with in fact 7 other people (2 were smallish kids) which made taking off your shoes tricky and led to worrying about snoring (yours and theirs) but in fact it wasn't so bad. Germany looks completely different to Italy - no weeds anywhere and all the buildings are well-maintained. Leipzig train station is incredible - you could eat off the floor it is so clean. Our hotel is very hip - lots of colour and designer chairs. The reception is a bar.
Today I am off to explore Leipzig and maybe get a haircut myself. There is a Bach festival starting later in the week which looks interesting (he was choirmaster at the church pictured) and hopefully a castle of two for me to get my teeth into. By the look of the place (compare the towers in the photos) I guess we have moved from the Renaissance to the Baroque. A new period of history to learn more about which I will enjoy. Now we say Auf Wiedersehen!
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