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| Glad to be standing at the top of Brocken after a crowded steam train-ride. |
Ever hear of Goslar? It's fine. You likely haven't. But you should drop by this town if you're in the neighbourhood, which also isn't likely because the only thing in Goslar's neighbourhood are rocks, trees, and the Harz Mountains.
The places that
usually draw people to Germany are on the country's fringes. From Hamburg
to the north, down to the southwest to the Dorf, Cologne – then further down the Rhine, you
can reach Frankfurt, Heidelberg, the Black Forest, never straying to far from
the border. Then turning east into Bavaria, you'd reach Munich with the Alps on
your right. which are shared between Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. To the northeast, you reach Nuremburg, Dresden, and Berlin – every city close to Germany's borders.
The Harz Mountains
are in the middle of that fringe. It's rugged country, where Germanic myths of
witches and dwarves and bridge trolls come from. Kings ruled from castles here
to guard the silver mines, the Nazis built V-1 and V-2 missiles in bunkers beneath the mountains,
and the Iron Curtain ran through it. Most people flock to the fringes without
really seeing the heart, or Harz, of Germany.
Express trains run
around the Harz, so it took two train changes to reach Goslar. Then we got lost
in the town. This is no cookie-cutter rebuilt town with a shiny old centre.
Goslar wasn't carpet-bombed during the war, so most of the old town is as it was,
with all its twisty, not-so-modern-German streets and its old timber houses.
Sure, Goslar is a
touristic draw. There's a Kaiserpfalz – an Imperial palace/castle from the
medieval days – and old mills and German-style breweries. But the untouched
old-timey centre is big enough to absorb them, so you get wonderfully quiet
moments to yourself on these old, twisted cobblestone streets and alleys, hemmed in by ancient wood houses.
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| Having Goslar to yourself is a common feeling. |
Down the rail line is Wernigerode, the starting point for tourists who take a crowded steam-powered train to Brocken, the Harz's highest peak, and back down again into town, where they crowd souvenir shops and Eis cafes. The buildings are also old, but the town is completely given over to tourist kitsch, which was disheartening and uninviting. We were ready to write off Wernigerode completely until we walked down a residential street, past a plague for Paul Renner, the typographer behind Futura. So not all bad, after all.
On our last night in
Goslar, we we sat in our apartment deciding on our next destination as Empire Strikes Back dubbed in German played in
the background. We had planned to go to Dessau to see the Bauhaus sights. But
a Bauhaus Design and Architecture Museum was still a few years from completion
and there were no architecture tours in English. It's astounding that Dessau
hasn't embraced its Bauhaus heritage. We had to change trains in
Berlin, so instead of changing trains, we stayed
in Berlin.
One day in Berlin
What do you do when
you have one night in Berlin? We had no time for anything, so we planned as much as possible for the rest of the afternoon. Kata
suggested we visit the Boros Bunker to see some contemporary art. We got turned away
because it's appointment-only. Berlin amateur move. Kata used to live in Neukoeln,
so we went there for dinner, but choked and couldn't agree on a restaurant. We rushed
hungrily into a joint that, to put it lightly, sucked. Another amateur
Berlin move. We should have known better.
The next day, we
walked along the Spree in the sun, had a cool drink by the river, and ate
amazing burgers in the Mitte. We had no plans. We didn't make it to another museum and that didn't matter,
strolling through the Tiergarten was
enough. We threw away our plans and the expectations that come with them. And we were reminded that Berlin has nothing but rewards for the relaxed visitor.
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| Berlin views. |