jrjcolllins

We will be arriving in SXF around 10:30 in the morning (May, 2013). We plan to take the train to Dresden and wanted to know the practicality of stopping off in Leipzig for a few hours to see St. Thomas Church and the Bach Museum. Then we would continue on to Dresden by train. Would this be doable on the same day? I have no idea how much time it takes to get from the train station to the Bach sites. Could we leave our luggage at the Leipzig station? Our other option would be to train from SXF to Dresden and then make a daytrip to Leipzig.

Aramis

It is a little over 3 hours, at best, to get from Schoenefeld Airport to Leipzig;

http://goo.gl/maps/dQjqe

and just under 3 hours, at best to get to Dresden from Schoenefled;

http://goo.gl/maps/xZXSi

Those times presume you make good connections on the S-Bahn and the Deutsche Bahn trains.

Leipzig to Dresden is about 1:05 - 1:35 depending on train taken.

So, if everything went PERFECTLY, you could be out of Schoenefeld by 11:00, and at Leipzig's station by about 14:00. Odds are it would probably be at least an hour later because of potential delays connection imperfection, confusion, etc..

In my opinion, it probably doesn't matter how far it is to the Bach sites after that, considering you have another 1:30 to go to get back to Dresden after seeing (some of) them.

At 1:05 (depart Dresden 08:23, arrive Leipzig 09:28) on the fastest Inter-City train, and only 01:34 on the slower trains with at least one train per hour, usually two, a day trip from Dresden would probably make more sense.

jrjcolllins

Thank you, Aramis. That's just what I wanted to know.

greg

I have just done Leipzig as a day trip. Bach Museum and Thomaskirche are next to each other and is little more than 10min on foot from the Leipzig DB station. The most daunting thing about doing this is how to get out of the Leipzig station because it is enormous. You want the Westhalle exit, which is to the right with tracks behind you. It is a end of the line station where all the trains have to back out. As you exit Westhalle exit, you are faced with a huge square with tracks and tracks of Tram lines. You follow the mass of people going down the Nikolaistrasse to the city center. You know that the Bach Museum is very small considering the admission? To use station coin lockers, <i>Schließfächer</i>, make sure you have many euros worth of coins in 0.50€, 1€, and 2€.

annhig

hi jr,

we were in Leipzig and Dresden last September, and if you could manage it, an overnight in Leipzig would be well worth it, especially if you arrive on a Saturday, when they have a concert in the Thomaskirche at 3pm. Here's the link:

http://www.thomaskirche.org/r-events.html

It usually features the boys' choir and a Bach motet; the day we were there the audience got to join in with a hymn which was a great thrill for me.

there are lots of other interesting things to see - the Nikolaikirche where the Monday protests took place, the beautiful covered parades of shops, the Rathaus, the view from the tower [very good restaurant] of the university building that is shaped like a book - more than enough to fill an overnight.

if you decided to do this, you might enjoy the traditional cabaret - there are several theatres that offer it and the one we saw was very funny, even for the non-german speakers in our party.


of course, you may decide to miss out Leipzig; I'm sure that you will enjoy Dresden very much. We only spent a night there and it wasn't nearly long enough.

Dukey1

If you go to www.bahn.de and use the English version and then the advance search you'll find that you can do the ENTIRE trip in between 2.5 to 3 and a quarter hours depending on timings. And that is going from Berlin to Leipzig first.

The Airport Express train from the airport only takes 28 minutes to get to the main railway station.

jrjcolllins

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions.

jrjcolllins

Thanks, annig, for your information about the Bach concert at St. Thomas Church. And thanks to Greg for the directions to the church. We've decided to go on a day trip from Dresden and take in the Saturday concert.

annhig

good idea, jr. When we went to the concert, we were lucky because our host very kindly went and sat in the church for an hour of so to keep our seats while we had some lunch.

so it's a good idea to get there early!