{"id":54928,"date":"2025-11-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54928"},"modified":"2025-12-05T16:33:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:33:29","slug":"iced-tea-old-chum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54928","title":{"rendered":"Iced Tea, Old Chum?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Near the MDR railway station in Leipzig is a giant concrete brassiere daubed in colourful graffiti. It\u2019s called the Kohlrabi Circus, and it\u2019s not what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought, when I first saw it, that it was something industrial. Like the kind of monstrous domes they erect over nuclear power plants to protect against earthquakes and planes falling from the sky (\u00e0 la Zhangzhou<\/a>). Naturally, this turned out to be nonsense. The northern dome is home to the (not so good, I\u2019m told) KWS IceFighters<\/i> ice hockey team. When they\u2019re not busy lobbing pucks, the hall\u2019s used for events, flea markets, the occasional street food festival \u2026 anything that benefits from lots of space and plenty of toilets. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The southern dome was home to Germany\u2019s largest ice-skating rink for over a decade. In short, these are two chilly mounds. If you walk down Semmelweisstra\u00dfe  <\/span>in-season, you\u2019re likely to see mounds of shaved ice outside, glistening in the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glistening in the sun are the weekend streets as The Mathematician and I head out for a walk. There\u2019s been a run of -7 Celsius icy nights the last few days, and the skies are clear and inviting. We shuffle-slide our way to the half-frozen river and stand on the bank, happy that the sun\u2019s still above the trees on the other side. A mountain biker in his 50s pulls up and calls out to a passing kayaker, who turns and paddles towards him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the wrong piece of sports equipment!\u201d the kayaker laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you<\/i> have there?\u201d the cyclist replies. \u201cAn ice breaker?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the two men chat on amicably in the frost, we make our way upriver. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love these signs,\u201d I say, passing one that\u2019s only really visible from the water. It tells you which stretch of the river heads where, and for how many kilometres. \u201cSeems like such an adventure! Heading off in your little boat, a flask of something hot \u2014 maybe soup \u2014 and some supplies. Then you go this way\u201d\u2014 I point \u2014\u201cand end up by the Auen lake \u2014 even Halle if you carry it past the weirs! And that way\u201d\u2014 I point again \u2014\u201ctakes you into the riparian woods. Magical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really should hire one at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah. We\u2019ve been saying that for several years now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNice thought though, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She nods. \u201cIt is. Come on, it\u2019s cold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We take in Clara Zetkin- and Johanna Park, cross the lovely little Japanese-style bridges over the pond, and saunter down to KilliWilli for a burger and banter. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heading home afterwards, we take a longcut and walk the wasteland north of the Kohlrabi Circus. We hear the crack<\/i> of a hard ball hit by hard wood. Ahead of us, not too far from the road, are several Indian men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, wow,\u201d says The Mathematician. \u201cI think they\u2019re playing cricket!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeriously?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a look. She\u2019s right. There\u2019s a little plastic wicket set up on a strip of concrete and a batsman with an actual cricket bat. I laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever thought I\u2019d see that played here. And in this weather \u2014 it\u2019s practically a winter sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho needs those?\u201d she says, pointing to the double domes across the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Traders, that\u2019s who. Because more than a century ago, when the Kohlrabi Circus was first built, it was used as a massive covered fresh-food market. There\u2019d been a smaller one before, farther north towards the city centre, but it was inconveniently far from the railway line, a problem for a trade fair city that supplied a decent portion of central Germany. So, the hall and domes were built, and built large. (At the time, they were amongst the largest in the world.) The locals nicknamed it Kohlrabi Circus<\/i> (Kohlrabizirkus in German) and it stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell you what, I fancy being back inside,\u201d The Mathematician shivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFancy a cocoa?\u201d I ask, as we hop across the Semmelweisstra\u00dfe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou bet your arse!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Near the MDR railway station in Leipzig is a giant concrete brassiere daubed in colourful graffiti. It\u2019s called the Kohlrabi Circus, and it\u2019s not what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[214,296,295,209],"class_list":{"0":"post-54928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cf","8":"tag-city-fables","9":"tag-cricket","10":"tag-kohlrabizirkus","11":"tag-leipzig"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54933,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54928\/revisions\/54933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}