Halle Saxony-Anhalt, Germany: City of Salt and Music.
This city is unique because is home of historical universities and hometown of popular classical Baroque musician George Friedrich Handel the classical composer. It located 30 minutes from Leipzig and has good train connections thought eastern and central Germany. There is a Handel Festival every year and boost some local/international composers. There are various festivals during the summer pertaining to the River Saale. Halle is a city also has industries of science and technology that dominates in the cities infrastructure.
Halle University founded in late 1690’s and is known to produce popular scholars. The university first granted a medical degree to women in the 1740’s. It recently changed its name to Martin- Luther University. In the near future there will be more science parks constructed for research and develop of Pharmacia products. If one has a taste of chocolate there is a popular German chocolate called Halloren-Kugeln Chocolates, one can tour the factory as well. This is the oldest chocolate in Germany dating back to the early 1800’s. Halle is the cultural capital of Saxony-Anhalt and it proximity is near another larger city eastern Germany of Leipzig. The Moritzburg castle was built in the 1500s by an archbishop of Madgeburg. Within the castle there is an art gallery and also beautiful Baroque houses. Gothic buildings that surround the city of Halle, this includes the Dom Cathedral. The salt trade was important for many centuries around the city. These where the Hallorens which controlled the salt trade near the Saale river. During the springtime, there is a fruit and vegetable market in the market street area near the city center. Each November there are two Christmas Markets in the city market. Its towers and the medieval market at a fountain surround this. Just outside of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt there is a mountain range called Harz Mountains and its only a little over one hour train ride there.
This is one of the national parks in Germany and has pockets of unspoiled forests and wildlife that is rare in Europe. Their are spectacular high hills of green pasture that surround the Harz National Park.
(This article is dedicated to my grandfather Arthur, which Halle, Germany is his hometown.)