After so many cold, gray and rainy days, I wanted to see brightness, snow, winter. There was none in Berlin. But I didn't want to travel too far. I didn't need a long train trip, wondered if there'd be snow in Harz. The weather report indicated there was, so I had to decide where in Harz. I saw a nice photo of Wernigerode on the web. I'd never been there and thought, sounds good. Do they have sleigh rides? Apparently if there was enough snow, otherwise there were horse drawn wagons. I looked for a hotel. It was the week before school vacation so there were plenty of vacancies, none the week after though. I chose a single bed room with breakfast that was a very reasonable price and bought my train ticket. It would take three hours to get there. That seemed acceptable.

The whole trip, three hours long the train went through a gray landscape with some green fields. There was no snow. Five minutes until we were in Wernigerode, no snow. My heart was sinking. We pulled in the train station and I got out with my backpack. I'd drawn a map of the way to the hotel. I was hoping to find a bus, but I couldn't figure it out, so I began walking. There was some snow, but the sidewalks were clear. My hand drawn map was a bit unclear, but I meandered on in the direction I thought it must be. I think I went about a mile or more and finally found the street. I was getting rather tired with the heavy backpack. But finally arrived at the hotel. The door was locked. No one was visible. Now my heart was down at my feet. What do I do. I ended up banging on all the windows, then trying to pull on the door, shake the door which did make a racket. A man appeared. He was a tourist from England, said he'd just arrived and showed me how to ring the bell, so I could get hold of someone from the hotel. Since all bells I'd ever seen worked by pressing them and this one did not, it was a tiny hardly visible lever you had to pull, well a voice came over the mail box and told me there was a key in room 11 for me. So that was it. I went to room 11 on the second floor and let myself in. The room was small but nice, a small bathroom a nice bed.

I put my backpack down, looked over the papers on the table which included password for internet. I picked up a map downstairs and then headed into the center of town.

It was dark, gray and foggy and wet. It had actually begun to drizzle. My heart was hanging around my feet. This was not the beautiful snow I was expecting. The snow in fact, seemed to be melting. There was a brightly lit restaurant with big windows across from the town hall, so I went in there to get some supper. It was fine, tasted good and I could do people-watching. When I was done it was dark. So I went back to the hotel in rain.

The next morning I woke up at almost nine. The breakfast was served until 9:30 so I had to hurry to get dressed. But I looked out the window and couldn't believe my eyes. It had snowed overnight and the scene was white, winter. snow. My heart jumped back up to where it belonged.

First view out my window

I went into town to see if I could find a way to get up to the castle which was up the mountain. The tourist train bus wasn't open, but I saw a horse and wagon standing there. It was empty but there was an older man standing near by. I asked him if it went to the castle and he said yes, but I have to have five people to make it worthwhile for me. There's only one other person. I didn't see another person, but I walked around and saw a woman standing there. She smiled, so I said are you going to the castle. She said yes. So we began discussing how we could get more people to go with us. We'd ask everyone who stopped to observe nearby and all of them said no. We were getting discouraged. Finally I said, we could offer to pay double, maybe he'd take us then. It wasn't that much anyway. She agreed and asked the man who then agreed, so we hopped, or rather struggled up the steep steps into the wagon. Once on the way two other people wanted to come as well. Thus we clip-clopped along through the town and then while the man pointed out some sights that we passed, then into the forest and up the hill. The new snow had made everything absolutely gorgeous. I said, I came to see snow, because there is never snow in Berlin and this is great. The man said, well, it hardly ever snows here either any more. So I though then I am really lucky.

The Horse and wagon in Wernigerode Me in the wagon Driving through the forest in the carriage on the way to the castle. Arrival at the top.

Without saying anything the lady I'd met waiting for the carriage kind of kept pace with me, so I thought I'll stay with her if she wants to stay with me. Obviously she did and we went into the castle together. There weren't many people there and sometimes we were the only people in a room. If she did get ahead while I was reading something, she waited for me. When we reached the chapel, she said shall we sit. Sure. And we began to offer a small glimpse into our lives. She had grown up in the DDR and had recently retired. She lived in a town nearby and was making a day trip to the castle where she hadn't been for many years and wanted to see it again. The rooms in the castle had been decorated for Christmas and the decorations were still up which was nice. Generally I like to ask questions when I visit a place and the people who work there always know a lot about these places. We didn't have a tour, but in one room two men were fixing lightbulbs standing on a ladder. One of them came down so I said, I was wondering why all the Christmas decorations only have deer, no elves, no Santa, nothing but deer. He said, a deer was the symbol of the graf family that had lived here until they fled when the Russians came. He seemed happy to be able to talk to us, so he suggested we sit down which we did. He said he had retired, but had come back to work, since they needed someone. He said we was working more than before he'd retired. The Russians had used the castle for their purposes and it had also been used for housing. After the Wende when the Russians left the graf family tried to get the castle back. The state however, was not happy about that. In the end they made some kind of deal. The graf could never have paid all the bills for renovations, the Russians had let it fall into disrepair, for upkeep, heat, electricity and so on, so they really couldn't have used it. The state gave them compensation, but made a mistake, by not included the furniture and other objects in the agreement. The Graf removed almost everything. Once again the state was unhappy about this. They made a new deal and got some but not all of the stuff back. One valuable object had been sold to a collector who did not want to give it up and demanded a price the state could not pay. Later however, that object appeared in New York at an auction and the state managed to get it and quite a low price and no one was bidding for it. But then the man began to talk about the problem of getting young people to work there. They wanted high salaries, they didn't want to start at the bottom.. and so on, that went on to a general complaint about young people being not wanting to work and then immigrants who were taking all the tax payers money. My companion didn't want to hear this any more, so she got up and started walking away. Although I know what the arguments are, still it is interesting to a degree to talk to people who believe this without understanding that the reason there are no young people wanting the jobs is because there aren't any young people and the immigrants are the only answer to that, but they need to learn German and get accustomed to living in Germany and take courses and live in the meantime and that costs the state money.
We went on with our viewing the rooms which were all done in dark wood But some had astonishing wallpaper. After we'd gotten through the castle, I suggested we go and eat. There was a quaint restaurant on the castle grounds. She agreed to that. I never found out what her name was, nor she mine, but it had been a nice day and I'd enjoyed her company.
From the castle we walked back down to the town through the forest. By that time it was beginning to get dark. Days are not terribly long in the winter. But good enough for me.

The frontof the castle Me standing in the front yard of the castle overlooking the town Wernigerode a room in the castle with medieval armour The dinner table set up for guests. A list of guests for this particular party existed and the places were set for these guests, people like Kaiser Wilhelm and the Graf family Entrance driveway to the castle. My companion said this was an old ski jump that was no longer used. View from the castle bedroom in the castle On this fireplace you see the Christmas decorations with deer. The wallpaper in this room must have had gold in it. A closer view of the wallpaper The lady of the house in her room a room in the castle with medieval armour A fancy door In the castle chapel I took this photo because I thought how easy how have a picture of a Christmas tree and put lights on it, instead of trying to buy a real one

In the morning I woke at 7 AM, a usual time, so there was time for a shower, then down to breakfast. It's nice just walking into a room and picking out what you want to eat without any work, scrambled eggs that day. I bought a ticket for the steam engine small guage railroad train which went to the top of Bracken or Blocksberg, has both names, Bracken in Germany Blocksberg in Denmark. The witches from both places met there to celebrate and dance, and still do, though they couldn't do it during the Russian occupation, since the whole area was closed off and high walls were built around it. The Russians used it for setting up their spying instruments, partly into West Germany. Brocken was right on the border almost. The station for this train was quite near my hotel. It wasn't full so I could get a seat with table for myself, but all the tables were taken. We left the town soon and were in the forest. The snow covered trees were beautiful, the sun was shining, it looked like some trees were hung with diamonds, others were feathery white, spectacular. It was a long trip to the top of the mountain, almost two hours I think but there were quite a few stops along the way. After about the half way point we entered the part of the forest that had been destroyed, partly by a beetle disease and partly by fire. The trees were bare, some of them black. But on the ground you could see that new trees were growing up, most about two or three feet tall. We were told that this was not such a catastrophe for Harz, because without the trees other creatures which couldn't survive in the forest could live here. The area was supposedly teaming with life. As the train got near the top there were hardly any trees at all, this was because it was beyond the tree line.

The top was fairly flat, but strewn with bolders. The snow was deeper. I had been told it was cold up there, so I dressed warmly. But when I got out, there was no wind, the sun was glaring down and warm. I got way too hot, and had way to much on. I walked around for a while viewing the area and the views into the distance. Below a bank of fog had rolled in and the you could only see the tops of the mountains sticking through the fog. The old watch towers of the Russians were still there as well as a TV tower and a building with a hotel and a museum. There was no skiing. After walking around awhile the sun glaring and beginning to hurt my eyes, I decided to go into the museum. I also needed the washroom, for which the ticket seller had to give me a key for the elevator as I said I couldn't walk up the stairs so many floors. There was a little restaurant up there where I got some linsen soup and something to drink. Then I went on the deck to get a view of the area from higher up. There was absolutely no one there. Instead they had some of the spy machinery, and you could see how at least one machine scoured West Berlin. The rest of it told the story of the GDR era, and the end of it, and then some witch tales. There was a witches broom which you could get onto and photograph yourself, that is, better have some photograph you, but I didn't have anyone so I had to photograph myself while flying on the broom. Very amusing.
By then the sun was nearing the horizon and not so glaring so I went out again and walked where I hadn't been before. I decided to take a train back that would leave while still light, but arrive in Wernigerode in the dark. I thus got about an hour of the sunset over the mountains. It was the area with the destroyed trees which glowed in the setting sun and looked much better than when they were just black skeletons.

I was in one of the last cars of the train, so could photograph the engine from my window when it went around a curve a view from the train window From the train, it was spectacular in this area through the forest From the train From the train. From the train. I took a lot of photos of snow on trees because I miss it so much I guess. Arrival at train station Brocken. Heinrich Heine had made a visit to this place. Information including about Heine. Looking down you see some mountain tops appearing above the fog TV tower and other buildings on Brocken what the spy station looked like in the museum in the museum Walpurgisnacht witches dancing in the museum Me flying on the witches broom in the museum. Marking the top point of Brocken with me standing there The little trees covered with snow The train arriving at the station on Brocken Information signs old tower in the sunset The train in the distance arriving at the station on Brocken from the lookout platform Wurmberg in the distance This map of Harz was etched into the table where I was sitting on the train an attempt to capture the sunset with smoke from the train The evening sun making the dead trees glow. In the distance the mountain with a tower is Wurmberg where the whole family was last year to ski.

My last day in Wernigerode. I had to have my room emptied by 10 AM, but could leave my backpack there. I decided to take a closer look at the town. I wanted to see the slanting house and it looked quite scary, as if it would land on your head. Walking into it, I asked the man at the door if he wasn't worried that it would tip over. He laughed and said no. For the case that people got dizzy there were chairs to sit on with with glasses and water. It was a strange feeling because the house was so slanted, it kind of pushed you down, or made it difficult to go back the up way. I didn't get dizzy though, but thought it might make me fall. There was a room with models of how the house was built and the man gave a nice talk about the methods and why they did it that way. The house was around 3 or 400 years old and was indeed standing. The builders had reckoned that the house might begin sinking so they build cross beams and x's that were quite unusual. This it was supposed would keep the house from collapsing when it sank and indeed, it worked. The reason it would sink is because it was built on a stream and had a mill wheel which made machines in the basement work through a complicated system of cogs. The result was to made several gigantic several ton heavy hammers pound hides to preserve them. The heavy pounding plus the softness of the ground because of the stream flowing by is what made the house sink. Always inclined to asking questions, I asked about the wall decorations, as he hadn't mentioned that. He seemed pleased to be able to talk about it. I was the only person in the house, so he gave me quite a long description, yes the decorations were original but had been renovated to be visible. Part of the wall decoration had been covered with plaster, but was cleared off so the original wall paintings could be seen. I think the man was so happy to be able to talk to someone that he gave me to free postcards when I left.

I walked on through the streets, the whole town seems to be consist of half timbered frame structures from the late middle ages. Amazing that so much was preserved, though some were destroyed by people who wanted bigger houses. The smallest house in the town was open to the public, so I went in there. It was indeed tiny 34 square meters on 3 floors. There was one room on each floor. The house had been inhabited by 10 people. One women had lived there on until the 1970s. After that walk I was hungry so ended up going to the same restaurant by the town hall that I'd eaten at the first day. After lunch, I wanted to make sure there was a bus that would bring me to the railroad station. The lady at the hotel thought I should walk or take a taxi, since the buses she said weren't trustworthy and could take an hour to get to the station. That seemed odd to me, and I found a bus stop that showed the destination to be the train station in about 10 minutes. I decided to believe it. I got my backback and waited there for the bus, which indeed did take me to the train station within 10 minutes. Without 2 minutes of leaving the station there was no more snow.

This is the witches house which was right near the hotel I was staying at, so I passed it all the time. I didn't see any witches come out or go in though. However there were carved witch and stuffed witches all over the place. Right exactly across the street from the witches is Karl Marx. I guess that's appropriate. One of the few remaining gates from the medieval wall. This is the slanted house. It's hard photograph how slanted it really is. But you can kind of get an idea here. This window looks out onto the street from the slanted house. From the window you don't even get the impression that you're falling even though it's very slanted. amusing a lady with glasses to look and a man with horn to listen. christmas decorations. An old house. there were quite a few statues of people doing various things. Behind this lady is a witch. A street with halb timered houses. the kitchen in the tiny house. The tiny house had a tiny courtyard with an outhouse and a place to hack wood for the fireplace. The fog had returned, so the castle on the hill over the town was hardly visible. The fog had returned, so the castle on the hill over the town was hardly visible. But oh well, it was my last hours there. The stories about the fog though seem to stretch back into a long ago past, so I guess it's nothing new, and I'm glad I got some time with sunshine.