As soon as we arrived in Leipzig, we got hungry. Daria did a quick Tripadvisor research and found a restaurant called “Auerbachs Keller” in the Mädlerpassage. So off we went to explore the city centre of Leipzig.
Boy, did we go unprepared. Okay, I expected we might need to be lucky to get a table without a reservation. But with that, we turned out to be lucky.
What we did not expect: When arriving at the Mädlerpassage, I had been looking for some stairs down. After all, Keller means basement. Well, we couldn’t have missed it. Two flights of stairs, flanked by life-sized statues. Additionally, the information that restaurant exists since 1525 in the centre of Leipzig. Okay, this is about to get interesting.
But what about the statues? They had the description “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust in the Auerbachs Keller”. Wait, what?
So here’s the story about the restaurant that we accidentally chose for our dinner during the one-night stay in Leipzig: When Goethe was a student, this was where he enjoyed his beers. Here, he noticed the two paintings about Dr. Faustus. And so, ultimately, in his legendary Faust, the Auerbach Keller, becomes the only referenced location from the real world.
About the photo of the Mädlerpassage
Before and after dinner, the centre was too busy. So I only took photos of the Skyline of Leipzig from our hotel room. And then set the alarm early for the next morning.
Mädlerpassage was one of my first stops. After the wonderful evening we had there the previous night, I wanted to find a way to capture its glory. I settled on this composition in which the arches of the Old Town Hall frame the entrance to the Mädlerpassage.
To capture the golden glow, I did something I rarely do nowadays: I combined multiple exposures to capture the entire dynamic range (HDR). Here I felt this was important, as I didn’t want to miss the golden glow. It fits perfectly, since Mädlerpassage is also one of the most luxurious shopping areas in Leipzig, this hidden gem.
