30 Sep: Brocken and Goslar

One of the day-trips planned from Goslar was to go to the top of the Brocken. We put it off from Tuesday to Thursday in hopes of better weather, and our hopes were realized.

Brocken and Brockenbahn

The Brocken is the highest peak in the Harz mountains, and was made famous by Goethe who, in Dr. Faustus, said that it is on the Brocken that the witches gather for Walpurgis Night.

Walpurgis Night, the night of 30 April/1 May, is when supposedly the witches from all over Germany fly on their broomsticks to meet for a big orgy presided over by the Devil. Since Goethe, the Brocken's peak is where the orgy is supposed to happen. We dunno what actually happens, but just for the record, here's the pile of stones called der teufelskanzel (the Devil's Altar) where it all goes down.

See any blood?

While we were there, a TV crew was filming a documentary on (presumably) this; at least, they were filming a couple of people having an earnest conversation in front of it.

However, the point of going up the Brocken was not the witch stuff, but the way you get there: by riding a narrow-gauge steam railway.

We drove through scenic woodsy roads to Schierke, the last stop before the summit, where we should find der Brockenbahnhof, the Brocken train station. Planning the trip thousands of miles away, we assumed this would be easy: drive into a tiny resort village, spot the station for the popular tourist attraction, park, buy a ticket.

Where's that pesky bahnhof?

Not so much. We finally found what we thought was the right parking lot and followed a tiny sign, and discovered that we had a walk of 0.8km (half a mile) uphill, through the woods.

Tiny sign on the right: "Bahnhof." Marian: "What, up there?"

So we found the station—and discovered that there was in fact a road up to it, and a parking lot, but lacking a sign of any kind (we checked later on return) how were we to know?—and bought return tickets and waited for the train, which arrived with a loud whistle toot, right on time.

Off we chuffed for the 40-minute ride, mostly through a dense conifer forest (like the one where Hansel and Gretel got lost). This is a major winter-sports area and the hills are laced with wide, smooth trails used for cross-country skiing, and of course hiking in summer. Lots of people were out and about, and wherever the train crossed a road or trail, people took pictures and waved.

Everybody loves a steam train.

The summit has a station, a hotel, and a monster communications tower.

Not a rocket ship; a tower covered with antennas.

The Brocken is only 3,400 feet high, actually 400 feet lower than Mt. Diablo in California. However, we are at a much more northerly latitude, so around the summit the trees are stunted and wind-warped and it looks like the tree-line at 9,000 feet in the Sierras. And it was chilly, maybe 3ºC. Still, everybody piled out and started sight-seeing.

The views were impressive.

Click through for a giant panorama.

We took a fast walk around the top, then piled into the restaurant for erbsensuppe mit bockwurst (delicious thick pea soup with a sausage floating in the middle). Then the next train arrived so we ran and caught it for the descent. On the descent, the down train pulls onto a siding to let the up train pass, giving another opportunity for a picture of a steam train under power.

Click through for steamy goodness.

Last Walk in Goslar

We returned along scenic roads through steep-sided, forest-lined valleys to Goslar. Since there was better light than other times, we once again walked downtown to take pictures of this very attractive town.

People enjoying the Marktplatz.

What is now the Hotel Kaiserworth was built as a guild-hall in 1494 (you know, about the time Columbus reached the Americas?) and decorated with statues of emperors.

Leftmost statue is the goddess of abundance.

Apparently the costs of the building became excessive, because there is a notorious addition: underneath the figure of abundance is a man shitting gold coins.

Hey, we've all dealt with contractors...

And admired some of the other old buildings.

Built in 1523.

Built in 1627.

Tomorrow: on to Hamburg!

29 Sep: Wilhelmshöhe

Today we did an activity that had to be done today, Wednesday, because it only happens on Wednesdays and Sundays. Happily, the morning was dry and not too dark. The sky even showed occasional streaks of blue.

Our target was Wilhelmshöhe, a huge Schloss outside of Kassel, 120km away to the west.

This stately residence was built in the 17th century by the Landgrave Carl. (What's a Landgrave? A nobleman, equal to a Count in English.) The residence has two parts: an immense but rather attractive palace set at the foot of a hill, and a large park rising up the hill behind the palace.

At the top of the hill is an octagonal structure topped by a huge statue of Hercules. This is visible from miles away, for example when going through the traffic in Kassel.

The octagon at the top of the ridge, with a spire topped by Herc.

Can you not see Hercules atop the spire in that picture? OK, here he is up closer.

Imagine him beaming down benignly on all that follows.

The front of the Schloss, in a rare sun gleam.

The Octagon and Hercules from a Schloss window, and garden below.

The Schloss has highly decorated apartments that can be seen on a guided tour, but we skipped those. (Once you've seen the apartments of Charlottenburg, Sans Souci, HerrenInsel, and Linderhof, you feel you have a pretty good grasp of interior decoration styles of the 1700s.) However, the Landgrave was an art collector, and the Schloss is home to a gallery of Old Masters from his collection. We walked through that, looking at works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Hals, Van Dyke, and others. Lots of big handsome portraits of fat Dutch merchants. Biblical scenes with agony; mythical scenes with chubby women ogled by satyrs.

However, the main point of this visit was the water show. The central feature of the Schlosspark is a huge series of water, um, events. Fountains and cascades and pools. The centerpiece is a series of cascades that start at the Octagon and run down the hill.

No water yet, not until 2:30.

Wednesday and Sunday at 2:30pm they turn on the water for an hour. People come from miles around to see it, and to follow the water on its course down the hill.

To see it you have to climb a rather high and steep hill. So after lunch in the museum cafe, we slogged up the hill and stationed ourselves. Right at 2:30, the first fountain started just below the Octagon.

The Octagon, being restored, is swathed in plastic behind the heads of the water-watchers.

Water starts to spill over the first cataracts.

And people start running down the 500+ steps to keep up with it.

The steps of the central cascade are flat sheets of stone with beveled edges. The outer cascades are just flat steps. Kids play chicken with the advancing water at each step.

Click through for details.

At several points along the way there are pools. Here the water is just reaching a pool.

We love reflections.

We were rooting for this kid to be washed over, but he made it out.

When the water reaches the bottom of the cascade it falls into a bigger pool.

Then the crowd, several hundred strong by now, heads off through the woods to the next place the water will bust out.

Adults stroll, kids run and holler.

Next spot where everyone waits with anticipation is the Steinhöfer Wasserfall. Do those rocks look familiar, Californians?

Looks suspiciously like theft or a copy from Devil's Postpile National Monument.

After a few minutes and some adjusting of a weir by a groundskeeper, the fall starts.

Then everybody hoofs it off through the woods to the next spot, the Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge), a quaint bridge over a miniature chasm. And a few minutes later, the wasser falls.

The last location is the Fountain Pool in front of the Schloss.

Right on schedule (with the help of a groundskeeper) the main fountain bursts forth, 40meters (130 feet) high.

We had a lot of fun going up the hill and chasing the water down along with the crowd of (mostly) Germans. Some cute little girls were pursuing a class project of interviewing English speakers and were accosting everyone who looked as if they might speak English, and we got interviewed by them while waiting for the water. Dogs barked, kids ran in circles, zillions of pixels were exposed in hundreds of cameras. All in all it was a pretty good show.

We got home and immediately went out for what proved to be a very good supper at a brewery restaurant. David sampled the Goslar beer, which has the Golden Pigeon (excuse us, Eagle) on its label. Not as good as Augustiner.

Tomorrow, Brockenfell or Bust.

28 Sep: Autostadt and Goslar

And now for something completely different!

Well, mostly different. We revert to half-timbered houses later. But we started this day with a complete change from schlosses and doms: technology!

Although the weather was more dry than last night, the clouds still hung low in the morning and we decided to do a rainy-day trip today: Wolfsburg and Volkswagen's Autostadt (car city). We headed out on a damp day.

Partway there, passing through a small village on a very narrow street, we had to pull off the road for a blinking police car, who was escorting a very large truck.

The trailer had eight axles and they all steered.

Two more wide-load pics in the gallery.

The Phaeno

Wolfsburg, which is VW's company town, is also home to a great interactive tech museum, The Phaeno. It's similar to but (we thought) even better than The Tech in San Jose. It's a short walk from Auto City and available on a combo ticket, so we got that and spent an hour at The Phaeno first.

There were dozens and dozens of simple, well-designed, interactive exhibits on two floors. There were hundreds (it seemed) of kids who were really enjoying themselves.

Talking robot is fun for young and old.

Most striking to anyone who's been in a well-used tech museum before: at most two of the exhibits were out of order. Most were so well-designed they were just hard to break. The most dramatic was the 4-meter Fire Tornado.

Ooohs and aahs all 'round.

Car Town

Volkswagen initially set up the Autostadt as an experience for people coming to pick up their new cars at the factory. Finished new cars are stored in two glass cylinders.

These are really just storage cabinets, where cars are filed by a robot picker system like eggs in a crate.

While you wait in the delivery center, automatic machines pick your car out of its slot and bring it underground to meet you. Or so they told us. We weren't picking one up.

We took a tour of the factory and watched new Golfs being assembled (no photos allowed). We toured a nice museum of old cars.

Marian found her '65 Karman Ghia, and we found our '77 Golf. But the gem of that show was Benz's original 1886 power-wagen, the first automobile. Don't actually know if this is original or a reproduction, but it's beautiful.

Fascinating to see a gas engine with an exposed crankshaft—clearly patterned after the steam engines of the day.

Autostadt has other somewhat over-the top features, like the dufttunnel (aroma tunnel) which consists of more than a thousand pots of lavender slowly rotating around a bridge. What? Why?

Goslar

On return, after a revivifying coffee and cake, we walked around Goslar some more. More and more we think this is the nicest small German town we've stayed in. Tubingen's altstadt was neat, especially on market day; and Bamberg's Alte Rathaus can't be beat as an individual building. But Goslar has block after block after block of old buildings from the 1600s—many more than Rothenberg—all just as beautifully preserved but all in current use, mostly as dwellings. Its Marktplatz is a really attractive public space, even on a drizzly day.

Funny thing about that fountain, though. It is topped by Goslar's emblem, the Imperial Eagle, symbol of the Holy Roman Emperors who resided here from 1000 to 1200. But whoever sculpted the fountain made the eagle look like nothing so much as… well, what do you think?

Click through to appreciate his regalness.

We see a chicken wearing long underwear...

Besides streets of old buildings, Goslar has lots of new buildings, all carefully integrated so as not to clash with the old stuff. Last night we discovered a whole shopping center has been tucked in beside the central square, so carefully we didn't even notice it for two days! However, they haven't always made the best choices of "modern," for example this sculpture, titled "Goslar Naglekopf" (nail-head).

What were they thinking?

One standout among many lovely old buildings is the family home of the Siemens family. You know, as in the Siemens conglomerate of every kind of industry and equipment? We'll just finish off here with some details of that building. Overview and more in the gallery.

27 Sep: Rainy Day in Goslar

In the morning it was raining steadily. One aim today was to take care of two chores: find a laundromat (wasch salon) and do our laundry, and find an ATM (geldautomat) and get some money. The second was to explore Goslar, which seems a very nice town.

OK, two out of three…

After breakfast we put up our umbrellas and walked the 8 or 10 blocks from the hotel to the Marktplatz where the Tourist Info office is. The Goslar Markt is a particularly attractive space, surrounded by interesting buildings and surfaced with a pretty pattern of cobblestones. Even in a chilly rain it looks nice.

Hopefully we will later get some pictures here in nicer weather. At this 500-year-old hotel on the other side, we had a very fine dinner tonight.

Click through to note the elegant slate roof.

With the help of the tourist info and later, our hotel clerk, we got money and found a laundry and got our load done. We are stocked with underwear and shirts for another week, yay! But in the chilly, steady rain we just didn't feel like admiring churches and local museums. So we holed up on the hotel room and passed a quiet afternoon. We found we could get a usable wi-fi signal—if we worked on the windowsill in the bathroom.

It's a little more convenient than going down to the lobby.

Tomorrow, rain or shine, we go sight-seeing in the Harz mountains.