Magdeburg, Wernigerode and Quedlinburg

Over the last three days, I have been visiting Sachsen-Anhalt as Wolfie was stationed in Magdeburg due to work. This meant I had access to a free hotel room and we decided to stay in the Maritim, the site of four Eurofurences from 2010 to 2013. We went to the first two of these and it was strange being back, largely because nothing had really changed. The lobby, Piano Bar and lifts were all identical, as was the room. Meanwhile, the surrounding city hadn't changed much either aside from the fact the two McDonald's have closed down. I arrived about two hours earlier than Wolfie as being unemployed allowed me to take a train of my choosing, while cows on the line delayed Wolfie's arrival. This gave me ample time to do some shopping (bin bags, kitchen roll and a salt cellar) and look around the city centre, allowing me to spy the higgledy-piggeldy pink-coloured Grüne Zitadelle Magdeburg which looked a little like Mr. Blobby's house. Getting lost in the many courtyards contained within - many with pastel-coloured murals and porcelin support posts - reminded me of the alleyway we visited in Dresden, as did the many niche shops and restaurants there too. Walking further up, I got to see the impressive Domplatz with the imposing cathedral and water features, while I also spied a few other churches around the town hall area too. While I was strolling, I listened to the Origin Story podcast, something I have gotten into over the last month. I've always liked Ian Dunt's stuff, and now having time to listen to it, it's been a worthwhile endeavour. I was listening to the one about Elon Musk, whose life story was fascinating. It's a shame his egocentricism has demolished Twitter, with the app turning to X during my stay. That just means nothing, while the usability is worse, but sadly Mastodon and Bluesky suck in their own different ways.

We were a little worried about being in Magdeburg as we had timed our trip during the annual AfD conference which was taking place on the south-east edge of the city. We were concerned we would bump into some of these people but if we did, none were overt about it, which was fortunate. Indeed, Magdeburg did seem quite punky, with many of the youths having an alternative vibe. Also, we saw many pro-LGBT and human rights stickers, unlike our experience in Dresden.

Once I had met Wolfie at the station, we decided to go to Hummels Brauhaus, a place I had spotted during my wanderings. It was 9pm by this point but fortuantely they were serving until 10pm, meaning we were able to grab a burger and fries. I had the BBQ one and it was nice enough, although got progressively more sickly the more I ate. We also had a rather nice pilsner which they brewed on site. We decided to go here as we knew we would have the time - Wolfie's work had the potential to run late, meaning the initial plan had been to eat separately - so at least this meant we had one meal together. In the end, we ate together all the time as our schedules largely coordinated. After this, we got checked into the hotel and relaxed for a while, before heading down to the Piano Bar for a nightcap. This has not changed at all since the EF days, while we were pretty sure we recognised one of the bar staff from back then too (although he didn't notice us). I enjoyed the Barkarte, which I quipped meant Bark arte, or all the ways a dog can bark. This got little traction on social media. We also marvelled at just how cheap the cocktails were while we drank our standard moderately warm pilsner.

I had bought the €27 Sachsen-Anhalt day pass after being recommended it by the kindly Deutsche Bahn staff at Magdeburg railway station. Aware I should have just bought the €49 Deutschland Ticket due to the extensive travelling I have done in July, I realised that being in the UK for most of next month would probably negate the benefit. The day pass was useful though as I hoped to tick off two major towns in the foothills of the Harz mountains - Wernigerode and Quedlinburg. Both had stunning old castles along with other tourist attractions so I wanted to get there was early as possible. With the ticket not valid until after 9am, I boarded the 9:08am train to Wernigerode, which was pleasant if uneventful. The train was an Abellio service not dissimilar to the ones in the UK, with the door beeping very familiar, but the journey was swift and I got out at Wernigerode at around 10:20am.

Upon alighting, the first thing to hit me was the smell of smoke coming from the steam railway next door. I didn't realise this was here, but apparently it forms one of three branches of heritage lines which total 140km in distance called the Harz-Querbahn. This takes you deep into the Harz Mountains, even to Quedlinburg, and I believe it's a particularly stunning journey in Winter, although sadly I didn't have time to ride it on Friday. Had it been just a small hop then I may have done, but it seemed to be a proper railway in its own right. The steam train being tendered was near the main railway platform, but I didn't see any locos in the platforms associated with the heritage railway itself. There was a ticket office that I daren't not go into, plus I wanted to get cracking with some sightseeing anyway. Consequently, once I had bought an Amerikaner doughnut from the bakery in the Deutsche Bahn station, I soon headed off into town to see what I could discover.

Wernigerode is most famously known for its castle, which is perched high on a hill overlooking the town. You can see it as you approach the railway station and it has all the mythical charm you would expect from a German castle. You can get there by walking through the town and then through some woodland as you ascend, or you can take the dinky yellow road train which leaves from near the Rathaus. I decided to do the former, but not before I had walked around. It's about 1km from the station to the town centre and en route, there is the Planetenweg, a series of sculptures detailing the eight planets. It starts with a huge gold ball representing the sun and the sculptures, which are more stone obelisks with information boards on them, are at a representative distance from the sun based on the real distance of the planets. It's one of those things for kids, but it was interesting. Most of the plaques (for Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are on the same road, which leads towards the main bus station. At a crossroads, you first encounter the splendor of this place, with most of the houses being timber-framed. It's like stepping back into the sixteenth century and I enjoyed wandering around the narrow cobbled streets, seeing what I could see. In one, there was a well that was constructed earlier this year, faithful to the pastel-painted wooden houses adjacent to it. During my wanderings, I also spotted some of the old watchtowers, which gave the place a feel very much like York.

The Rathaus was built in the 13th century, with additions coming in the following two centuries. It is late Gothic in style and has the same timber framing as many of the other buildings. It's cream in colour at the bottom, with orange and wooden features at the top. It has two huge towers jutting into the sky with a clock in the middle, making it look quite unique. When I was there, a married couple were getting photographed in all their finery before they moved on to the pleasant green and gold water fountain right outside the Rathaus. Here there is also a small cobbled market place where a few sellars were hawking food, while there was also a pop-up stand advertising a 12-hour and 24-hour jogging event. The tourist information centre is inside the Rathaus guarded by one of the most ornate doors I have ever seen. It's green and red, with statues of two guys standing either side guarding it. There's also one of those 3D metal maps of the town outside too.

Wernigerode has a long history, highlighted by the fact that influential Lutheran Philipp Melanchthon stayed in a hotel opposite the Rathaus in the very early years of the Protestant Reformation (which of course started in Wittenburg, which is also in Sachsen-Anhalt). Further up the road that runs between the Rathaus and the hotel, there sits the Harz Museum. Three painted wooden figures stand outside this building, which I visited later in the afternoon. It was quite a fascinating place, covering the geology, fauna and flora of the place in one wing, alongside the history of Wernigerode in the other. It was all in German, but my knowledge of the language was strong enough to understand good chunks of it, while Google Translate also enabled me to learn a few new words too. Indeed, I conducted most of my trip in German throughout as these places are far more popular with domestic tourists and got by fine, which was quite the confidence boost.

One of the main churches is up here too, which is again surrounded by many wooden buildings. Down one of them there is a very small alleyway not dissimilar to York's Whip-ma-whop-ma Gate except this is walled in wood rather than stone. To the side of the church, there is a stone cross and two tablets commemorating the heroes who died from the area in the First World War. Further up, past the loitering youths and statue of a music stand, there was the yellow train called the wonderfully named Wernigeroder Bimmelbahnen. It was just about to leave, but having spoken to the driver, he told me I needed to get a ticket from the shop just over the road. This I did and he kindly waited for me, setting off as soon as he had shown me to my seat. This was isolated from everyone else and was a pleasant fifteen minutes as we chugged up the road towards the castle. On the way, we saw the smallest house in town, which is now a museum. I visited this too when I came back down, discovering it housed a family of ten people, who were predominently workers of cloth. This area was where the merchants' houses were, and this house was particularly tight. It was full of dolls for some reason and, as there were only two rooms, it didn't take too long to visit. The lady taking the money - it only cost €1 - was pleasant enough but there was little room to move inside, despite there only being three other visitors when I was there. Still, it was a nice enough visit, if a little underwhelming.

Anyway, back to the train. We chugged past Lustgarten - one of the three garden areas of the castle - on our way to the summit, where we were deposited near the main entrance gate of the castle. It was then a small climb to get into the building itself. This snaked its way along the side of the castle, so you could look up and see the turrets looming above you. As usual, there was also some construction work going on, so some of the walls were obscured by scaffolding. On the other side, there were a few former merchants shops which have now been converted into overpriced cafes. Due to an hour and 20 minute wait for the next yellow train (it's usually every 40 minutes but I assume there was a break for lunch), I stopped off in one of the cafes on my way down where I ordered a Coca Cola and a piece of black forest gateau that was the size of my head. The view was stunning to be fair, although it was a little windy, threatening to blow the parasols away.

Anyway, I am digressing yet again. There were about forty of us on the train, mostly elderly, so I powered past them so as to avoid any queuing. Through the main gate, you enter a splendid little courtyard that again affords fantastic views over the town below. You can also see the forested Harz Mountains rolling off into the distance, so you can see why this was such a strategic place to build a castle. Indeed it was initially built as a medieval fortress in the 12th century. There was a watch tower on the far side while a pleasant little fountain in the middle. Oh and a huge crane, which somewhat dented the medieval vibe. The castle itself though was very fairy-tale-like and I dreamt of being a princess here. These feelings continued throughout the two 'Rundgang' tours you could do. This was in the main castle building itself, which had a smaller more intimate outdoor courtyard in its centre. To get to this, you had to buy a ticket and then go up an adjacent staircase. At one end, there was an overpriced cafe, but the square is dominated by the tall yet narrow clock tower and wooden building to its left. On the other wide, there is a smaller cylindrical tower which is covered in verdent foliage. The two tours start at entrances near the former tower, up a staircase which is flanked by statues of chained dogs and dragons. Ascending, you become more in awe at the magic of the place, with the interior delivering in this aspect too. I had a really deep sense of connection in the Princess quarters in particular, while I was delighted by the reaction of a young girl carrying a husky bag who loved being there too. The King's chambers were bedecked in red and were very similar to many others I have visited, while the opening room of both tours is the main chapel, which was very spacious with a stone alter and modest stained glass windows. We got to see this from two angles - the ground floor and the balcony. The castle was added to throughout the years - in the late Gothic style in the 15th century and the Renaissance style in the 16th - but it was Otto zu Stolberg-Wernigerode who did most of the remodelling between 1862 and 1885.

I was going to board the 1:20pm yellow train after finishing my cake, but the path through the wooded area was tempting. I walked down it, with dreams of being a Princess still in my mind, finding myself down near another one of the towers which marked the main walls of the town. I then wandered around Wenigerode some more, checking out the aforementioned smallest house and museum, as well as seeing some more churches and a main concert hall. With my dogs barking, I sat outside one of these churches for about 15 minutes overlooking a store selling technical security systems and the local CDU outpost, just enjoying the quiesence. Sadly, a performance troupe from the nearby theatre joined me a short while later and the silence was broken.

I don't know why I wasn't eating particularly healthily on Friday, but this continued once I got back to the railway station as I picked up some peanuts and a Red Bull. I never drink the caffeinated stuff, yet I had four over the course of the weekend, my tiredness being quite high. Certainly, now I am in my 40s, I don't think I can do this extensive touring much more, with both Friday and Sunday being over 25,000 step days (and Saturday nearing 20,000). Anyway, I drank my drink while waiting for the train, casually spying the steam engine near the heritage railway once again. Then I headed over to Quedlinburg via Halberstadt, which seemed to be the main junction on this part of the line (indeed trains from Magdeburg get split here, with some heading towards Wernigerode and others heading to Quedlinburg). I had hoped to call in here too, but the main sights are about half an hour walk from the station and in the end, I ran out of time.

I reached Quedlinburg shortly before 4:30pm. This too has a castle, but it is undergoing renovation until the end of 2024, which is why I prioritised Wernigerode. The weather on Friday was mixed, but by the time I reached Quedlinburg, it was sunny. This gave the water in the river a crystalline feel, accentuating the emerald streaks of the moss it was flowing over. I walked into town, a walk of about fifteen minutes, following the signs designed for tourists. The initial places I visited had an English country village feel, with more timber-framed buildings painted in many pastel shades. There was a village green, a pleasant stream and winding cobbled streets which opened out into pleasant courtyards. I decided to walk up to the castle, if only to see it from the outside, and discovered that the associated church was open to visitors. This was quite interesting but alas we weren't allowed to take pictures. I did pick up a guide though, again only in German, which detailed the main things to see. I had a look around before heading down to the atmopsheric crypt, which had a few stone memorials mounted to the walls. There were two stone sarcophogi under the floor, one of which belongs oto Heiligen Mathilde who died in 968, the other belonging to her husband Heinrich I. There has been a church on this site since 936, the same year he died.

Up above the alter, there are two rooms which now house a treasure chamber. Many of these reliquies date from the twelfth century, while some were recovered from a US soldier in 1993 after he had taken them at the end of the Second World War. Some of these books and chests, inlaid with gold and jewels, were absolutely breathtaking and being alone with these was a huge privilege.

Once I had taken a look around, I walked out into the terraced garden. There is a bar here and I was tempted to buy a Stortebecker and sit in the sun, but at €4.50 I refrained. They were also close to closing too. I therefore descended the stairs leading out of the castle complex and decided to walk around it the other way. This afforded me a much better view of the castle perched on the hill, while I also followed signs to the church of St Wiperti, which was sadly closed. This was a little out of town along a river and I felt a little exposed out here, with a few of the locals giving me odd looks. The church closed at 5pm, but the grounds were still open, although there was little to see apart from gravestones. I therefore headed back to the main town centre, via the castle route once again, descending into the main square to check out the exquisite Rathaus, which was covered with lush green vines. The main square definitely felt quite Polish to me for some reason, but it was very lively on a Friday evening. To the right of the Rathaus there is the white and pink Haus Grundhagen, an imposing building in itself, while further back off the square there is a nice church. In the courtyard near this, there was an old man guitarist playing Hotel California. It was all rather pleasant and I again wondered whether I should stop and take a beer at one of the restaurants on this square. Again, due to money reasons, I decided against it.

I ended up working perpendicular from the main square, heading back to the station a different route. This allowed me to stumble across Neustadt, which had a wonderful open cobbled square, a fountain and a yellow pole with many coats of arms right in the centre. The same wooden framed buildings were also present. This was arguably more bustling than the main market square as there were a number of busy restaurants doing a roaring trade. Behind here, there was a massive church, while a few streets further back, I was able to walk along the old city walls, replete with watch towers which were largely boarded up. This was a minor detour en route back to the railway station, which I reached half an hour before my train. Unlike Wernigerode, there was very little going on here, aside from one kebab place and a few overpriced vending machines that just accepted coins. I therefore just sat on the platform and watched the world go by, spying three young Slavic-speaking youths of about ten years of age messing about. At one point they jumped onto the tracks to retrieve a mobile phone they had spotted, which had clearly fallen out of someone's pocket. They were delighted with this find and soon cycled off. With about five minutes to go before my train, a steam train pulled into the opposite platform and discharged patrons. It was clearly timed with the Deutsche Bahn service in mind, and was part of the same railway I had seen in Wernigerode. It was a thrill seeing one of the belching black steam engines in operation and I lamented I didn't have the opportunity this time to take a ride. I did take some cheeky photos though.

The wait was a little frustrating, but soon the train arrived and the journey back to Magdeburg began. I had very low battery so asked Wolfie to meet me at the station, to which he consented. It was about 9pm by the time I had gotten back and having had very little to eat all day - an Amerikaner, the gateau, some nuts and a Red Bull - I just wanted to go to the Burger King in the shopping centre over the road from the railway station. This we did, where I had a double cheeseburger and cheesy fries which were more soggy than crisp, reminding me of why I tend to prefer McDonald's - it just hits a spot that Burger King never does. Wolfie had the sloppiest burger imaginable, during which he told me about his work day and the issue he had with his 'nuggets'. the two staff members he was mentoring who struggled to do basic things like put on a pair of shoes. They sounded quite challenging - they couldn't even get a taxi to site by all accounts. After this, we headed back to the hotel, where I freshened up before we got sucked into an Americna TV show called Naked Survival. It was weird, not least because the naked bodies were pixelated, which surely defeats the point of the show. The clue is in the name - for whom were they censoring it? Anyway, it dealt with a man and a women who had to survive in the tropical wilderness naked. The lady lasted about a day and the bloke about a week, after which he was so fatigued he cut a huge gash into his foot with an axe and he had to get treatment, ending the experiment. He got a 'Survival Rating' of 5.0, with the women who quit on day two having 1.3. It was interesting I guess, as they had to camp using wood and leaves to build a bed, while also trying to hunt by throwing stones at possums or catching fish in a manky river, but they were largely unsuccessful. Anyway, we were quite transfixed but once it was done, we decided to head back down to the Piano Bar for a final drink before heading to bed.