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History, Harz and Heath
  • Wolpertinger Wanderings
August 2025

History, Harz and Heath

The title says most of it, Saxony Anhalt and Lower Saxony, cradle of Medieval Germany and gorgeous scenery. Read more
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  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    1

    Marktkirche Benedikti 1

    August 16 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    Originally a Romanesque church built in the 900s, it underwent many adaptations. Turned Protestant. Many of the pieces in the church (altar, organ, baptistry, etc) are from the late Fifteenth Century on. Another large, impressive church. While I'm not a big fan of statues, I really liked the statues in this church. Stained glass as well.

    (and wow you can put up to 25 pics for free now!)    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    2

    The Search for Herzog Heinrich

    August 16 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    Two more things were on our Quedlinburg itinerary: trying the cheesecake at a place I saw in a you tube video, then followed up to see it got great reviews, and finding the fountain depicting the offering of the crown of King of the Germans to Herzog Heinrich der Vogler.

    Found the cheesecake place. It was okay. Kind of like an Italian ricotta cheesecake taste, but much fluffier. Note to self, don't get food recommendations from you tube travel vloggers.

    Found the statue as well, in a very nice Art Nouveau area. So last pictures of Quedlinburg including a surprising and rare picture of yours truly.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    Saint Cyriakus

    August 16 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    This was another must visit for me. It's a gorgeous church, built in the Ottonian Romanesque style by the Margrave Gero around 959. At the same time, he established a female monastery adjacent to this land. Again, it went through many renovations, enlargements, with Gothic elements added, but keeping it's Romanesque shape.

    Because Gero was such an ardent supporter of King Otto I aka Otto the Great (son of Henry the Fowler), the church and convent were granted Imperial protection. Control of it was transferred from the bishop of Halberstadt, Gero is buried in front of the altar. And if you're keeping score-- this is the same Gero whose main job was to pacify the Slavs (including the Wends/Sorbs whose lands we'll revisit shortly). The same Gero, who after seeing a Saxon army get slaughtered invited thirty Slav chieftans to dinner and slaughtered twenty-nine of them. One, obviously, got away.

    The church was visited by Frederick Barbarossa, and he gifted them a bell. It was the site of one of the earliest copies of the Tomb of Christ, which apparently looks nothing like the one in Jerusalem. It became Protestant with the rest of the area, was secularized when that happened. The convent was taken over by a private individual as his farming estate.

    The church itself was restored at the request of the the Duke of Anhalt Bernburg , the work being done between 1859- 1873. More work was done in the early 1900s, and I'm wondering if this was when much of the interior painting was done. What's there now looks vaguely Jugendstil/ Art Nouveau mixed with Byzantine and reminded me very much of the Shrine of Hildegard von Bingen, which is also a mix of Romanesque and Art Nouveau.

    This was my favorite church so far on our trip, up there with the Asam Chapel in Munich and the beautiful churches of Nuremberg.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    Saint Cyriakus

    August 16 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    More of the church. More of Gero's tomb. Note the small dog at his feet.

    It's just so amazing to me to walk in the same places that the historical figures I've learned about have walked. Mind blowing

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    1

    Die Teufelsmauer

    August 16 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    Ha! We found it. Or at least part of it. The Devil's Wall, Saxony-Anhalt. We were so close on our not so great transition day. If we had just continued up the sketchy road out of the back of that farm store we turned into, we'd have found the trail head. Oh well, it was really much too hot that day to be tramping along the the fields in the sun.

    Have to say, the rock formations were very engaging. A lot more exciting than the Devil's other wall down in the Schwarzwassertal in Saxony, though that area was stunning, especially in the snow. This Devil's wall reminded me of rocks formations we've seen in the American west, but their isolation in otherwise tranquil looking fields make them seem sinister.

    So now, I've seen two of the Devil's walls, and eaten his sandwich (was meh, you'd think the Devil would have a better taste). What Devil-related thing will be next for us? God only knows.

    And I'm really taking advantage of my 25 free photos here...    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    2

    Day Trip! The Spreewald

    August 17 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    This is another place I've wanted to go to since I learned about it. It's another remnant of the lands of the Sorbs/Wendish people. Even better than the area around Bautzen, it's in a swamp. All right, that's not technically what it's called (I don't even think they use that word anymore), but it's watery and filled with mosquitos. These days, the whole watery area is UNESCO Bio-reserve.

    They have a very interesting Christmas Market, which is how I came across it. You take a boat to the open air museum, and they have the market there, featuring crafts and customs of the Sorbian people. Well, we didn't make it to that, but we did set aside a day to make the long drive over.

    And it was long. Cloudy weather with light rain in spots. Having to get to the Autobahn, then go just south of Berlin. Lots of construction, restricted speeds, etc. The town was crazy. Though we left early, we didn't arrive until after ten, closer to eleven. We parked the car, and hit the trail. Thankfully, we packed sandwiches, so ate them as we walked out along the canals to the village of Lehde.

    This first walk was a little disappointing, nothing like the pictures and videos I've seen. Except of course for the all the places selling pickles and pickle-related products. The area is known for its cucumbers and pickle products, so of course before we really got going we had to try some. It was also crazy crowded both in the Große Hafen and at the intersection of waterways by the museum in Lehde.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    Freilandmuseum Lehde

    August 17 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    We found the museum pretty easily. It's at the junction of two canals/creeks/ little rivers and a couple of bridges. There were a few beer gardens, souvenir stands, in the water kayaks and canoes everywhere, not to mention the long tourist punts. On the land, people wandering around and not paying attention, and people hauling their bikes up and over the wooden bridges.

    Dodging all of that, we made it to the museum. Unfortunately the island was inaccessible, so we would be missing one of the houses, but that was fine. It's a combination of your rural open air museum showing "this is how things were in the old days": the old days here being the mid 1800s and then the early 1900s, and also, this one features information about Sorbian life and culture.

    For a longer brief on the Sorbs, see the Saxony Christmas Market trip, or just look it up. Short version: they were the Slavic people here before the Germans showed up. There were decades of war, followed by centuries of the Germans pacifying/ assimilating/ what-have-you both the Lower Sorbs (the people from Spreewald) and the Upper Sorbs (from around Bautzen, where we went last December). This included attempted to eradicated Sorbian/ Wendish language and culture, which was partially successful. During the Romantic Era, local culture and language made a come back, partially in the spirit of the Era of Revolutions.

    Today, the Sorbs are still working to keep their language and traditions, this time with government approval.

    So lots of pictures of the museum in coming because I love these sorts of places.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    Freilandmuseum Lehde 2

    August 17 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    More of the museum, including the boat maker's and some of the early Twentieth Century house.

    Yes, we're on our way home, many days behind, but the internet in the more rural areas was kind of spotty and uploads were not happening.Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    212

    Freilandmuseum Lehde 3

    August 17 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    The Sorbian culture exhibit, which was interesting and a bit different than the museum we saw in Bautzen.

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    222

    The Trek to Wotschofska

    August 17 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    We heard about this beer garden, and were really happy to learn it was accessible by land. I'd only seen people get there by boat, and we didn't want to book a tour, or rent a kayak. The waterways were far too busy. The last thing they needed was another couple of idiot amateur seamen.

    We had some beer, one Berliner Weisse, this time with the green waldmeister instead of raspberry. Along with this, more Spreewald gherkins, local bread, and grebenschmaltz. We also tried the local buckwheat pancakes, but fancied them up with ice cream, cherries, and whipped cream.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    22

    Schloss Lubbenau

    August 17 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    Yeah, we're staying over. Don't want to face the traffic back, and never got to go on our boat ride.

    We decided to stay in the local Schloss. All I know about the family is that one of the last of them was involved in the July 20th Plot against Hitler, and was hung in Plotensee prison in Berlin.

    It was cheaper to stay here than in a Hampton Inn along I 95. Of course, our room is on the top floor, where the servants lived and they locked up the deranged cousins, but it's still nice.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    21

    Wir Gehen Kajak Fahren!

    August 18 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    Some unsuspecting businessman rented us a really nice wooden kayak. I'm sure he regretted it when we couldn't get out of the dock area without him telling us what to do. In German, but I understood so yay!

    Once we figured out how to steer the thing, it was nice. We opted for a short tour, and might have gotten lost. We're not sure. We managed not to have to operate any locks, and had the waterways mostly to ourselves until we approached the main port area. Then we had to navigate around other kayaks, canoes and even those big barges that take people around.

    It was a nice time. We were back in time for a quick bite: Fischbrotchen, butterfish topped with a pickle, of course, and then we hit the road.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    1

    Lutherstadt Wittenberg

    August 18 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    Well, it looked close on the map, though it took us out of the way. We figured though, when would we be back in this area of Germany to do see Wittenberg again? So we went for it. We had a pleasant drive through Brandenburg, listening to Bach's first three Brandenburg Concertos and some third wave German Ska. The countryside was pretty, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the pretty wooden churches we passed, which looked different than any other churches we've seen.

    Then: Wittenberg, where Martin Luther taught, and challenged the Catholic Church with Ninety-Five Theses, inadvertently launching much more than the reformation he had expected.

    Pictures are the before and after drive, and some shots of Wittenberg Altstadt, including the former Cranach workshop, now an apotheke.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    2

    Lutherstadt Wittenberg

    August 18 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    The cathedral at Wittenberg, including the famous doors. They were redone with bronze renderings of the Ninety-Five Theses, by King Frederick Wilhem IV of Prussia in 1858. When I stood in front of them, all I could hear was one of our former Orthodox priests intoning...

    "The doors! The doors! In wisdom, let us attend!"

    And if memory serves me right, and it might not, the Nicene Creed follows.

    There are a lot of interior shots, including the graves of both Luther and Melanchthon, as well as the Saxon duke Frederick the Wise in front of the altar. The church was practically completely destroyed in the Seven Years War by the Hapsburgs, yes, them again. (Side note to my American readers, this one we call the French and Indian War). It was rebuilt, however most of the interior art and decorations was destroyed.

    Still, an impressive church. High ceilings, stained glass, statues, painted ceiling. It reminds me of the Lutheran church I grew up in, though on a much grander scale, of course.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    22

    Lutherstadt Wittenberg

    August 18 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    The Lutherhaus, unfortunately closed for renovation, where Luther lived with his wife Katherina and their family, and the university where he taught. That was much smaller than I expected, but I grew up with the monstrosities that gobble up entire city neighborhoods, so wasn't thinking what a Renaissance era uni would look like in terms of sizeRead more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    1

    The Old-Timey Steam Train

    August 19 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    We wimped out on hiking to the Brocken. The weather had cooled off, but I really didn't want to do that last steep climb up to the top. Didn't want to do it down, either. I did want to go up to the top, so that left the train.

    I'm a huge fan of trains. I don't know why, since the train I have the most experience with is the Frankford El, aka the Blue Line, aka whatever they call it now, in Philly. It was never a nice train, but these days, wow...

    That said, we rode the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen. The first train up to the top of the Brocken started running in the 1890s to accommodate the expanding tourist market. The line was obviously discontinued under the Communist government, as the entire area was off limits due to its proximity to the border and the spy base on the Brocken.

    It was a nice ride, good views. We went up through the areas of the mountains that have been devastated by the bark beetle infestation, and then where the forest fire had been last year.

    I stupidly stood out on the platform for a bit to take pictures. Didn't fall off (obviously).

    Not quite as romantic as our ride up to Oberwiesenthal in Saxony through the snow, but that was just because of well, the lack of snow.

    Recommend, though it's pricey. In hindsight, I'd have trained up and hiked back. Maybe.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    1

    The Brocken

    August 19 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    Finally. I've been chattering on about this place since the trip started. The infamous DDR/ Soviet spy mountain... Also known as the site for witches' sabbaths, made famous in Goethe's Faust. I even read it so I was ready. Could have given it a miss, tbh, the play/poem, not the visit to the mountain.

    The old buildings are still here. There's a small museum which somehow we missed going into, a toilet you have to pay for, a handful of stands selling food, beer, and Feuerstein liquor (yay food and beer), and a hotel. It would have been interesting to stay up there, and I don't know how I didn't look into it.

    We did the short hike around the top, walked a bit down the Heinrich Heine Weg, the path we most likely would have hiked either down or up. The Brocken has it's own microclimate, and its said to be much colder and windier than the surrounding area. It wasn't that day. Also, I've read and seen on the few you tube videos I found on the area, that it's often shrouded in clouds, and you can't get a good view from the top. Again, we didn't have that problem. Good travel luck, I guess.

    So now we have pictures of the old buildings, weird red lichen on the rocks, the views from the top, and a lot of flowers. Something that was alarming, the heather was in bloom all the way up here. Our next area to visit was Lüneburg Heath, for the annual heather bloom. I was worried if it was blooming at this elevation, we would miss it down there.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    Home base: Altenbrak

    August 19 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Following are some pictures of the nice little village where we stayed, Altenbrak. It's up in the Harz Mountains, on the Bode River. There are a lot of places to stay here, a few cafes, a restaurant that's opened sometimes, but no stores, not even a bakery.

    It's a stop on Hexenstieg, the witches' path, a hiking trail that runs from the town of Osterode over the Brocken and ending in Thale. We walked around the town, crossed over the Bode, and headed onto the trail towards the intermediate village of Treseburg.

    First stop, the Witch's Hut (turn up the sound on the video, it didn't pick up). Then as we were walking along the trail, we stopped to read a sign about the wildlife. Out of nowhere, a guy started talking to us, telling us the walk to Treseburg was only and hour, and we should really do it.

    Nice guy, right? But it's kind of getting dark, and we're in the deep German woods. What do I immediately think of, werewolf... Not the best thing to have in mind for a walk in the woods.

    Oh, when we got back to the same spot (we didn't walk all the way to Treseburg because the path was blocked by a lot of fallen trees and we didn't want to scramble over them), he was gone...    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    The Bodetal Hike

    August 20 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    This was the second serious hike of the trip, through the Bode River valley. It's called the Grand Canyon of Germany, apparently, and when we started out on the Treseburg end of the hike, honestly, I didn't see it. It was pretty. Lots of trees, some elevation gain, though we were already pretty high up.

    The trail was mainly dirt and some roots for a while, then we hit the rocky part (see picture at some point). I was glad we had our poles with us, because it was sort of rough going. We didn't see many people, as we started early (apparently), and were going the opposite way from most hikers, who start in Thale and go to Treseburg. It's an in and out, not a round, though you can make it one if you climb up to the ridge line one way or the other.

    At one point, we hit a series of switchbacks that brought us through a fairly significant descent. We had passed a handful of other hikers (coming from Thale) by this point, and as we were coming down, saw a few take a look at the trail (for them a steep ascent) and turn around and head back to Thale.

    It was after this part of the trail that I could see why people nicknamed it the Grand Canyon of Germany. High canyon walls, nice river at the bottom. Still very green though. Dramatic scenery, enough to inspire Goethe (yes, him again), whose presence there is marked by a carving into the cliffs. That though, will probably be in a later set of pictures.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler
    11

    Bodetal

    August 20 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    More of the Bodetal, getting to the really impressive part.

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    The Bodetal Hike 3

    August 20 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    Finally made it through, with a stop at Königsruhe, a nice little guesthouse near the Thale end. A lot of people apparently only come this far, get a beer and a snack, then go back to Thale. After that rocky switchback area, I cant say I blame them.

    I stamped my hand, since we didn't get the stamping-hike-passport book. Yay made it through!    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    Thale

    August 20 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    Honestly, by this time, we were really tired. We decided to catch the bus back to Treseburg, where we left our car at the beginning of the hike. We had planned to ride the cable car up to the Hexentantzplatz, visit the touristy things up there, then hike back along the ridge.

    In the end, we decided against it. Thale has very much gone all in on the witch/devil motif, which isn't really my thing. We wandered around the town a little. The part we were in, besides right by the cable car where they had minigolf and some amusement rides, was practically dead. Hardly any people, nothing really opened. Even that entertainment center wasn't that crowded.

    We looked around for a cafe, didn't find anything. Instead, we visited the two churches nearby. The Catholic church you could only look into (though it looked scary and haunted from the outside). The Protestant church was small, but open. Finally caught our bus, made it back to Treseburg.

    We went to look for the war memorial, and found it, including the grave of the nine HJ Volksstrum killed at the end of the war.    Read more

  • Wolpertinger WanderingsHistory, Harz and HeathTraveler

    The Kyffhäuser Monument

    August 21 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    This seemed like a good way to finish off the imperial portion of our trip, visiting the Kyffhäuser Monument. Built from 1890-1896, this monument celebrating German imperial ambitions is another that links Kaiser Wilhem I with Frederick Barbarossa. It was built on top of the remains of a castle, which some historians believe dates back to the Hohenstaufen period based on the stone work-- the Hohenstaufens being Barbarossa's family. The idea behind the monument: setting the White Beard on the Red Beard's Throne...

    It's an impressive monument, with a small museum. You can climb all the way to near the top, via a set of corkscrew steps that reminded me of those they had in the Statue of Liberty when I climbed it as a kid back in the '70s.

    Kaiser Wilhelm I is a cast bronze equestrian statue. He's flanked by the female figure of Germania, and a male warrior figure embodying the martial spirit (which the literature on site apologizes for--"it meant something different in the 19th Century) of the German people. At the bottom carved from stone in exquisite detail, is Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, looking very fierce.    Read more

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