Quedlinburg and the Brocken

One year we drove through Hamburg to see Beatle sites and down in to Celle where Anne Frank is buried.
We continued through Goslar, Bad Harzburg, Wernigerode, and into Quedllinburg.

We loved the half timbered buildings and found the area enchanting ! Although we didn't hike, we were totally enamored with the Harz Mountains !

Don't miss the Quedlinburg Castle museum with their collection of artifacts that were hidden in the Quedlinburg hills by the Nazis. An American GI pilfered some of the priceless items including the Samuhel Gospel, a 9th century bible decorated with emeralds. After trying to sell the stolen items in the 80's, the US government sued the family and the items were returned to Quedlinburg and are on view in the Castle !

The Harz mountains are quite a detour. How many days do you spend on the coast, in and around Stralsund?

Possible day trips from Quedlinburg are Goslar (a World Heritage Site just like Quedlinburg), Wernigerode and Stolberg/Harz (a hidden gem), all three cute towns with hundreds of half-timbered houses. A bit farther away are Wolfenbüttel or the Kyffhäuser (with a huge Wilhelminian monument) and the nearby, huge Peasants War Panorama (123 m/404 ft in length and 14 m/46 ft in height). Halberstadt offers the most beautiful Gothic cathdral of Northern Germany, almost like the ones in Northern France.

You can walk up to the Brocken, usually from Schierke (so you have to drive to Schierke first), but there's also a steam train that goes up to the mountain. If you want to hike Wernigerode is the better base... but three nights only are not enough for sightseeing and hiking anyway, so...

According to Google Maps, the shortest distance hike is about 3¾ miles, less than 2 hours. In 2008, I took the narrow gauge steam train from Schierke and saw people hiking up. It didn't look like a difficult hike. I saw both Bad Harzburg and Wernigerode. Both towns are beautiful if you are a fan of Fachwerk construction. The castle at Wernigerode is nice.

Thanks Carla, Martin and Lee for your suggestions. I was worried that "parking" ourselves in Q'burg for three days, we might find ourselves wishing we were somewhere else, but it sounds like there's more than enough to see and do there. Martin, I realize it's not the most direct route between Stralsund and Potsdam, but I don't mind veering off the road more traveled if I have the time. We'll be on the Baltic coast for a total of eight days, including two visiting friends in Stralsund.

Quedlingburg is beyond gorgeous. Its historic core has over 1000 half-timbered buildings, I believe. I think the tourist office has occasional English-language tours; it definitely rents audioguides. It took me hours to use the guide despite having previously visited the castle and the cathedral (another vote for the mind-blowing treasury). There's also a modern-art museum (Feininger Gallery) that I unfortunately didn't have time for. That's OK. It's a good excuse to return. I think the city really needs more than one full day. Two full days there would be fine with me because it's so wonderful just to wander around.

Another thread has reminded me that Quedlinburg is one of the places where an ATM machine didn't like my card in 2015. There's at least one bank in town that must have some sort of restriction on the cards it accepts. If it happens to you, just keep trying other banks. But probably best not to wait till you're out of cash before looking for a machine.

One other thing: The historic quarter is heavily cobbled. I made the mistake of heading from the train station to the tourist office (always looking for a map ASAP) before going to my hotel. That was not smart with a rolling bag. Since you will have a car, you may prefer to be outside the pedestrianized historic district, where you're more likely to find convenient parking. I usually stay in cheaper places, but in my quest for an air-conditioned room in Quedlinburg, I ended up at the Best Western Plus Schlossmuehle. It's pretty near the castle. It was very nice and was under $100 in mid-summer. I didn't pay any attention to the parking situation, but I bet it has space somewhere.

I stayed in Wernigerode a few years ago and did a day trip to Quedlinburg. I agree that Quedlinburg just about beats it for beauty, although Wernigerode is closer to the Brocken (the steam train mentioned above leaves from there).

The hike from Schierke to the summit of Brocken is fairly easy. I think I did it in under three hours. Note, though, that the shortest route to the top takes you through a short stretch with extremely rocky, uneven terrain. If you take this route, I would make sure you have good ankle support. On a sunny day, expect to see hundreds of people making the same hike. The restaurant and beer garden on the summit can actually get a little crowded. By car, Schierke is easy to reach from Quedlinburg.

Nearby Burg Falkenstein looked like an interesting castle, but I didn't have time to visit.

We stayed in Quedlinberg for several weeks and never ran out of interesting places to explore. I too highly recommend Goslar and Wernigerode as easy day trips to see two other very beautiful cities. The steam train that turned around in Wernigerode also stops in Quedlinberg to take on supplies.

We hiked the Bode River Gorge from an upper town down to Thale. We parked in Thale and took a bus several kilometers up to a town and then hiked down...it was a very hot day but the path followed the small river through beautiful scenery and helped cool things off. http://www.uncommon-travel-germany.com/bode-valley.html

If you are in Quedlinberg at midday on one of their agricultural market days, have a most excellent Thuringer brat. It was only 2€ and one of the best brats I've had on recent trips.

I would take the narrow gauge train up to the Brocken. You can take it from Quedlinburg, but it's a long route. Much better to go up from Wernigerode.

Thanks everyone, for all the great suggestions. We're booked for three nights in Quedlinburg, a town I'd never heard of until I started digging through this forum for interesting looking places off the beaten path. I'm looking forward to the adventure!

Hi,

See the Kyffhäuserdenkmal, one of the five main Prussian monuments in Germany. Thanks to the Russians in 1945, it was left alone.

If you are into naval history, the Marine Museum is in Stralsund.