Michael's Europe 2000 Tour - Week 8

Diary

    Mon, 18-Sep-2000

The afternoon I spent updating my diary and doing some other stuff, but the evening turned out quite good, with dinner followed by a chess-tournament between dad, Stefan and myself. I lost to dad, dad lost to Stefan, and in a marathon game which went forever, I got a stale-mate against Stefan.

    Tue, 19-Sep-2000

Not long after we reached a beautiful little town, which was to be typical for the trip, called Witzenhausen and had lunch. There we also bought some postcards and took a quick look at the township. Like most of these small towns it has an array of old streets and buildings. This one even had part of an old city-wall and a tower called the Diebesturm (Thief-tower) where they used to keep criminals.

From Witzenhausen we continued on towards Halberstadt, through a region of Germany called the Hartz - mostly consisting of hills covered in pine trees. On the radio we heard that today there would be the 3000th visitor in the Brockenhaus. We didn't know what that was, but the Brocken is the tallest mountain of north Germany. Since it was a beautiful day, with rain predicted for tomorrow, we decided to go there today. Dad had planned to look at the Brocken tomorrow, after Halberstadt.

After winding our way through ever smaller roads, we finally stopped at a pub in a tiny village called Torfhausen to ask for directions - and found out we had stopped at the right spot! By now it was late in the day, but we decided to at least check out the way a little. Meeting some people with knapsacks and walking sticks we asked how long to get to the top from where we were, and they said about 2.5 hours. We looked at each other, decided that we would see how far we could get, and started off determindedly.

Soon after we reached a map which said that the summit of the Brocken was 7.7km away. We looked at each other again, and decided we should be able to do that.. it was 16:50 by then, with sunset not too far away, so we strode off. All the people we met on the forest paths were walking back the other way, looking at the two of us strangely. About 1/2rds of the way there we got to areas where the forest was badly damaged by pollution, with entire hilltops consisting of dead trees. The pollution affecting this area is #generated hundreds of kilometers away and blown here on the wind, falling as acid rain on these high forests.

Another kilometer or so on, and we came to a steep hillside, with a road consisting of two concrete tracks running straight up it. This entire area used to be a Russian military zone, and halfway up the hill was an old cargo station for a steam train. Hardly believing my eyes, there was even a steam train on the tracks! Needless to say that I whipped out my camera and took some shots, running up the steep hill to try and get closer and better shots before it would disappear. It turned out to be a small passenger train, taking tourists up to the top of the Brocken, but unfortunately for us it doesn't stop at the abandoned station.

We continued our weary and now quite steep way to the top, the last few kilometers seemed to drag out forever. Out of the forest it was also getting quite cold - under 10C - but the heat of the climb kept me comfortable in tshirt. Finally we reached the last stretch, summit in sight. Right on 18:00 we stepped onto the summit heading straight to a small pub at the railway station. They had already closed, but were kind enough to let us have a drink and sandwhich - Harzer Roller, which is a cheese special for this area.

After our very much needed and earned rest we stepped back out into the freezing wind, in time to watch the last train of the day roll out of the station and back down the mountain, not that it would have helped us as we needed to go in a different direction to get back to the car. By now I was feeling the chill and put on a sweater which barely helped as we explored the top a little, took some photos, and then finally took shelter in a cafe which was still open - because they were still hoping for tenants for the night. They very nearly talked us into staying too, as the sun was about to set and we had an 8km treck in front of us to get back to the car. But we decided we could still walk and find cheaper accomodation, so we finished our drinks, took a deep breath, and headed back down the mountain.

It took us longer to get back down since the sun set before we even reached the old railway station on top of the steep hill, and once we got under the trees the twilight all but disappeared. If it wasn't for a small torch I had with me to look at signs we would still be in that forest! But finally we staggered out amongst the first houses.

Since the only pub in the village had already closed we decided to head to the next village and try for accomodation there. Braunlage was the name of the place we stopped at and took a room in a small hotel since the youth hostel was already closed. A sign by the door read "Not *****, but nice", as it indeed proved to be.

Dad wasn't ready for bed yet, so we found a pub which still had some life in it after asking a local, and had a few good hours at the bar. The owner even sang songs himself, and the music in between was good too. We drove back to the hotel, and after a brief run-in with some cops who ended up wishing us a good holiday we turned in for the night.

    Wed, 20-Sep-2000

We spent quite some time looking around, and even ended up having lunch here. Then it was back into the car, and later in the afternoon we finally found ourselves in Halberstadt. Dad had wanted to go here since his grandfather used to own a house here, and he wanted to take another look at it. First we took a look around the inner city of Halberstadt, which has been all but rebuilt with modern buildings, since there was pretty much nothing left standing by the time Germany reunited. Just about the only old buildings left were some cathedrals, and they were in dire need of restoration.

After saying hi to the people who had bought the house, with whom dad and his brothers still maintain some contact, and driving by the house, we headed towards Bremen where I have some relatives on my mothers side. We reached Bremen well after dark and after spending the rest of the evening with Fritz and Rita we went to the bed & breakfast they had organised for us and called it a night.

    Thu, 21-Sep-2000

Amongst the sights was the cathedral, the tower of which I climbed, the Roland, the Schnoor, the waterfront of the Weser, and various other prominent buildings. Later in the day Rita, Fritz, and dad parked themselves in a pub, and I went on to an internet cafe. When they were finished they picked me up, and we all headed home. Dad and I spent another night in Bremen at the bed & breakfast.

    Fri, 22-Sep-2000

Good-byes ended up lasting till past lunchtime and I used that time to write another batch of postcards. We stayed for a quick lunch, took a couple of photos, and then finally headed back home. Just before the highway we stopped in a shopping mall in which I got stamps and sent the postcards off on their merry little way.

The drive back was good, averaging about 150km/h where allowed, with no heavy traffic until just around Bonn/Koeln. We finally got in touch with Rebekka, a cousin of mine which I wanted to see again before I left, and she invited us around for dinner.

We stayed quite late as Abas, her husband, didn't get home until nearly 10pm, and we both wanted to meet him. When he finally did show up we had a late dinner, chatted for a bit more, and then got invited to stay the night, which we did even though we had to make do with sleeping bags on the floor. I slept better than I had for days!

    Sat, 23-Sep-2000

Due to an entanglement with a BMW we ended up being a touch late and then had to rush to Grandad's place to do some shopping for him. Arnulf and dad went off to get the water while grandad and I went to a local shopping centre to pick up a few little things.

Dad and Arnulf were late coming back so I had lunch with Grandad and Edith. Halfway through lunch they get back, having stopped at a pub somewhere on the way.. They had brough their own lunch and had it outside in the sun while we finished ours.

After lunch dad and I had wanted to get going, but instead dad decided to first take a nap in the sun, and I wasn't adverse to that idea either. Not being able to sleep, I went to get my book and had a chat with Mrs. Poehle, old neighbours of Grandads.

We finally did get going to Helmut's place after an impatient call from him as to where we were - he had invited us to a street-party at his place. So we reluctantly roused ourselves from our cozy spots in the sun and headed over.

Once there the party was just starting off, and I got right into the swing of it with a few beers. Stefan, my cousin, had other plans for the night, those being a party at a friends place, which he invited me to as well. So after an hour or so we headed off to his friends party. That turned out to be pretty good despite me being the eldest there by quite a margin. We wrapped up the night with a few more beer with the stragglers of the street party.

    Sun, 24-Sep-2000

We said our good-byes, I packed up all my gear which I had kept stowed here while I had been travelling around Germany as this was the last time I was going to be here. We hopped into the car and headed over to Uli and Walli's place, an uncle and aunt that I had not yet visited.

We arrived on dark, had a nice dinner, and a pleasant evening of chatting. Absolute luxury here - dad and I actually got separate rooms all to ourselves!