We could do one or the other, not both. We were in Leipzig heading for Wittenberg.

1) Attend a choir and organ concert, late in the evening, at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig featuring some of Bach’s famous works. St. Thomas is where J.S. Bach, arguably the world’s greatest composer, worked as cantor and composer for almost 30 years. It is also the home of the 800 year old Thomaschor or boys’ choir. Bach led it during his tenure in Leipzig. In addition to Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Reger also played on the organ here.
OR
2) Attend English worship at the Castle Church–Lutheran, in Wittenberg, the place where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses starting the Protestant Reformation, one of the world’s historic turning points. It is also the church from which Luther often preached from the pulpit. As the mother church, so to speak, of worldwide Lutheranism, the Castle Church played an important part in history.

Events made the impossible choice for us. There were no trains from Leipzig to Wittenberg after the Thomaskirche concert, and we had a hotel reservation in Wittenberg that could not be canceled. We also doubted that there would be hotel rooms in Leipzig since the city fall market was in full swing. And so, Castle Church it is.

Leipzig is a wonderful city. The train station is also a major shopping mall, well designed. The Old Town is huge, with imposing buildings and many elegant shopping arcades. The Fall Market (Herbstfest) was scattered all along the major pedestrian streets offering a wonderful array of fall goods, i.e., fresh honey with the hives, woven corn stalks with fall flowers or garlic, wood carving booths, new wine sold from large glass containers, fall handmade clothing, etc. We purchased our lunch here and ate foods we have never eaten before, Leipzig specialities, made with fried dough and cheese. Very tasty! Now, we are headed to Lutherstadt Wittenberg on a comfortable train.

By the way, we left most of our travel belongings in our apartment hotel in Dresden and will return there. The train stations have convenient lockers for bags, and we left our one travel duffel bag there while we toured Leipzig. Handy and efficient. More importantly, God gave me a Thomaskirche gift. We could not stay for the concert; however, an organist played one of, and perhaps my most, favorite compositions, “The Pilgrims’ Chorus” from Wagner’s Tannhauser Opera. Magnificent! WEG

St. Nicholas Lutheran Church, Leipzig, Germany

St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Leipzig, Germany – Altar & Burial Site of Johann Sebastian Bach

Martin Luther Window in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, Germany

Herbstfest, Leipzig, Germany