Leipzig

Leipzig is a city in the German Bundesland Saxony, and is famous for its alternative scene. Check out Plagwitz, Südvorstadt and Connewitz if you're there.

North towards Berlin, South towards München
Take the bus #131 from the city center to Dölzig and get out at Südstraße, one stop before the Nova Eventis center. This spot is some meters before the direct ramp onto the. Try to find your ride here towards Berlin or Munich! Beware, that bus doesn't run very often. Check the timetable (Jan 2013).
 * First option

It's also possible to get to the spot described above with tram #7 in direction Böhlitz-Ehrenberg. Get out at the tram stop Georg-Schwartz-Strasse/Merseburger Strasse. From there, walk back some 10m towards the main road and walk right towards the Aral petrol station. Follow the road for 200m until you passed a Lidl supermarket, and after that some meters further you'll find a bus stop (Lindenau Friedhof). From there you can easily hitchhike a ride towards Dölzig and/or the motorway. Make sure to get out at the last traffic lights before the motorway. Just behind the traffic lights, there's a small bay where cars can stop easily. A sign might be useful. Hitchhiking ~800m further directly at the on-ramp is pretty dangerous, there's no place for cars to stop and traffic passes by pretty fast.
 * Second option

North towards Berlin and Magdeburg/Hamburg
There is a brilliant spot to ask people for lifts at an "Aral"-petrol station which is the last one before the Autobahn that also leads onto the  to Berlin.

Take tram 16 with or without a 2,30 Euro-Ticket in the direction of Messegelände and get off at "Hornbach Baumarkt" from here it's a 15mins walk to the station but it's worth it. Walk in the same direction as the tram and take an immediate right onto "Dübener Landstraße" along the parking lot of the big hardware store. After passing the bridge over the B2 it becomes Nathusiusstraße. Keep walking straight until you reach Ztschortauer Straße where you turn left and walk another 300 metres until you see the "Aral"-petrol station on your left.

Asking people for a lift towards Berlin on the or towards Magdeburg on the  (which is also the way to go for Hamburg) usually works just fine here. Do keep in mind that the first rest stop going north from here will be Köckern Ost on the whereas it would be Plötzetal Ost on the.

East towards Dresden


Take a Tram to the stop "Paunsdorfer Alle/Permoser Strasse" (check here before: www.lvb.de/timetable). Show a sign saying "Dresden" and find a good spot on the street towards east which is close to the motorway junction already. There is lots of good experience reports about this spot.
 * First option

Take the Tram #15 or #2 from the city center towards Meusdorf and get out at the last station. Go 250 Meters further to the next bus stop. This is the best spot to Dresden via and /.
 * Second option

In direction Dresden you then have a service area called "Muldental" since a lot of people turn of before Dresden so that you can use also the rather local traffic.

West towards Erfurt, Köln, Belgium
When heading to Belgium highway number 4 is a decent option. There are no comfortable ways (other than luck) to get on the highway to Kassel. Though if there's somebody taking you to the make sure you get a long lift. There is only one service station Rohnetal Nord before reaching the near Göttingen/Kassel.

You can take bus 131 from Main Station (Leipzig Hauptbahnhof) or Merseburgerstrasse that will take you all the way close to the (alight at B181/Dölzig). At the bus stop you can easily get a lift in all directions. All day long heavy traffic yay ;-) Craig's waiting times average at 15 mins for direction Cologne (West) or Nuremberg (South), 20 mins direction Berlin (North).

First you have to go south on the, use a sign "A9 Süd", there's a gas station on the highway 30 km south from Leipzig, there you can find a ride going West - the on-ramp on the side away from Leipzig is slightly more spacious (but not spacious) and there was a little more traffic when guaka was hitching from there on Thursday around noon.

Right after getting onto the there's a restaurant that's okay during the day (guaka found a long ride to almost Giessen from there). There's also a gas station before Erfurt (but after Jena).

Hitching In

 * Hitchhiking into the city can be difficult, especially if traveling along the . If your driver doesn't mind driving a 10 km detour, you can get off at Leipzig-Nord. Don't get off at the on-ramp, there is no way to turn around for the driver.
 * Actually it is fairly easy to get off at Leipzig Nord-Ost or Leipzig-Ost, where you have possibilities for the driver to turn around and the tram is within 1 km reach. If coming from south-east, lot of drivers go in via . In both cases you can use the directions given in the two optionjs for getting onto direction Dresden.
 * Otherwise, options are the airport where a train is going regularly into the city.
 * If traveling the, you can best get off at Leipzig-West. The driver can go off to "Einkaufszentrum", then let you out at Nova Eventis. There you can easily get a car to the center just hitchhike anywhere near the exit for Leipzig at the parking with a sign "LE".
 * Hitchhiker Craig would rather recommend to ask drivers going off to Leipzig. The road directions are not separated on that side anymore and there is a perfect spot (bus stop) for hitching into the city plus drivers can easily make u-turn going back to the highway.

You could also take the Bus 131, but why should you?

Overnight
There are several hostels and many couchsurfers in Leipzig. Most of the hostels are in or near the center and two of them even right beside the train station.

Public transport - Riding with and without a ticket
''the information below does not apply to the S-Bahn city train. See Deutsche Bahn instead''

Using public transportation without a ticket is fairly easy in Leipzig.

Getting caught without a ticket:
 * fine is 40 EUR, payable by bank transfer in about 10 days
 * I don't know if there are special rules if you possess a non-German ID

Anyway...
 * Ticket machines outside trams give you unstamped tickets
 * You can validate tickets in both trams and buses, the machines beep when you do so (check if there is a ticket stamping machine in the rear of the bus)
 * Inside most trams, there's a ticket machine that gives you a stamped ticket (just hanging around there won't serve as excuse if you get busted)
 * Bus drivers also sell stamped tickets


 * You could buy a (short range, if you're on low money) ticket and keep it unstamped


 * Most transportation rules for German public transport are along the lines that you have to present a valid ticket if you're asked to do so
 * You need to get the ticket stamped before the traffic control reaches you
 * If you've got an unstamped ticket, you can argue that you didn't know about validating it - the tourist act usually works


 * After 20:00, you usually need to get in buses at the front and show your ticket to the bus driver

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