German Christmas Tour: Day 15 - Wernigerode (1/2)

We were up for a reasonably satisfactoy breakfast in th hostel this morning before the long bagage drag back to the hauptbanhof. We had planned to stay in town longer, but the lack of a reasonable place to leave our luggage combined with the fact that we'd basically seen everything worth seeing in town meant we were pretty motivated to get up and out.

When we got to the station, the steam-train up to bocken in the harz mountains was warming up, which was a nice sight to see.

An honest to goodness steam-train.

In no time we'd jumped on our regional train, and in half an hour we were in Wernigerode. We immediately caught sight of Wenigerode castle hovering over the town like a real-life Hogwarts.

Wernigerode castle hovering over the town

Walking into town, we were immediately struck by how much nicer Wernigerode was than Quedlinburg. The houses were in a better state of repair, and the whole place just looked cleaner and fresher. The christmas market stalls were all still up, which gave us hope that the market might be still on. 

Soon we reached our hotel - The "Weisser Hirsch" right on the marktplatz opposite the rathaus.

Hotel Weisser Hirsch

And what a rathaus! One of the most amazing building we'd seen so far. I mean the gothic structures in Munich and Nuremberg were inpressive, but this was almost more so. Sooo beautiful. 

Soon we had our bags stashed at the hotel and ventured out into the town for a wander.

The Wernigerod rathaus - beautiful.

Christmas market stalls are still up. Are we in luck? No.

It was quickly apparent, from the numerous signs posted about town, that the christmas market had indeed been cancelled in sympathy for Magdeburg. Very dissapointing to say the least. Almost at once we started to see the stalls being disassembled and taken away. In our despair we decided to adjourn for lunch and thought the Ratskeller a sound option. And it was! with the ratskeller giving us yet more Haxe and bier #28 for this trip - Fransikaner Hefeweizen. Now I won't pretend that I've never had Fransikaner before, but it was a legitimately new bier for this trip, and being on tap, it was oh so good! 

The Wernigerode Ratskeller

Bier #28 - Fransikaner Hefeweizen

Saved by an amazing meal at the Ratskeller again!

After a great lunch, we decided to explore more of old town. The first port of call was the so-called Kleinstes Haus - a tiny house that a family of nine lived in 300 years ago, now turned into a museum of smallness and filled with the kind of bric-a-brac that normally drives me insane (old dollls and so on).

The Wernigerode Kleinstes Haus

After the Kleinstes Haus, we wandered around town a little more. Being a sunday, nothing was really open but we did get to see a bunch more beautiful half-timbered houses. After Eb went back to the hotel to call Colista, we ventured out for an afternoon coffee in the local Italian coffee shop and then rested a little before dinner.

Dinner was a rather lacklustre affair at the local Brauhaus Wernigeride. The beer was ok (not worth a mention here) and the service was pretty bad. Enough said.

German Christmas Tour: Day 14 - Quedlinberg

We were up early today for a nice hotel breakfast before the 5 minute walk to the Hauptbahnhof and our three step train ride to Quedlinberg. In no time we were there, and walking the 20 mins to our 'hostel' on the ourskirts of old town. Fucking hostels. I swore I'd never stay in one again, and now I remember why. Doors effectively locked until checkin, nothing in the way of service or even a smile. Eat shit hostels. Never again.

Anyway, we dumped our bags (we had to just leave them lying in the foyer - eat shit hostels) and headed out to take a look at the town. Since our 'hostel' was quite close to the castle, we thought we'd take a look there first. To be honest, it wasn't that amazing given the last few we've seen. Really, it wasn't even close. Oh well.

Quedlinburg castle - disappointing.

The view from the castle wall.

From the castle we headed into the centre of old town and the marktplatz where we expected the christmas market to be. It looked to us like there were still setting up for a saturday market start? Nuh-uh they were pulling everything down. We never saw a notice, but it was pretty obvious that the market had been cancelled in sympathy for the Magdeburg terrorist attack the night before. It did take us quite a while to realise what was happening though. We even ventured back into town after dark just in case we were wrong. Nup, we weren't.

Old town Quedlinburg and the rathaus

Craving sustenance, we sought out the ratskeller on marktplatz - always a good option in any german village. It turned out to be a fantastic choice. We were immediately furnished with bier #26 of the trip - Duckstein Hefeweizen, and it was amazingly good. Soooooo damn good. I followed this up with what was billed as a 'pair of haxe' but must have come from some pretty small piggies (compared to the Bavarian monster haxe we'd been seeing).

Viva la ratskeller!

Bier #26 - Duckstein Hefeweizen

Haxe aus little piggies 

After a second weizen (and in Eb's case a third) we left the ratskeller and wandered around more of old-town. It's a pretty small town to be honest, and we exhausted the pictuesque roads and laneways pretty quickly.

More old town wandering

Soon we craved caffeinne, and so we combined a coffee break with a chance to try another regional specialty - Baumkuchen (tree cake). We ordered it with a dark chocolate covering, and it came in 4 sections cut from a larger cake. It was so dense it seemed baked with almond meal or similar, and was almost edible if dunked in your coffee.

Baumkuchen - pretty dense, pretty dry, pretty meh.

After the 'cake' if was time to actually check into our hostel so we got into our rooms and had a rest. Pretty soon it was dark, and as stated previously we stupidly went back out to check if the christmas market hadn't suddenly re-hydrated in our absense. No such luck. Just small knots of people and young families wandering around directionless and lost. Such a shame. Given Magdeburg is just up the road, I guess it's understandable.

Anyway, we continued on to dinner at the only brewery in town - Brauhaus Lüdde.

Brauhaus Lüdde

My research had recommended to me their Schwartzer Bier, and so this was immediately ordered; becoming bier #27 of this trip. Sweet with little to no bitter after taste, it went down sooo smoothly. 

Brauhaus Lüdde Schwartzer Bier - #27 of the trip.

The schwartzer bier was so good that a second round was immediately ordered. Food  orders followed, and since I was still so full from my piglet haxe, I ordered a simple 'wurst salat'. Yep it's just what it sounds like - rounds of weiswurst in salad dressing, In hindsight not the best choice (I coukd have had a real salad!), but you know, when in Germany..

German Christmas Tour: Day 13 - Erfurt

We woke up early this morning in preparation to debunk to Erfurt on a 9:42am ICE. Whilst the kids and I got the bags together and completed checkout, Katrina treked off to Cafe Seel to grab some pastries for the trip. Giving ourselves plenty of time for the long luggage drag to the train station, we decided to make the walk just a little longer by going via Maximillian Platz - a much nicer route. We had half hoped that our favourite coffee guy would be there next to the christmas market and, praise be to jeebus, he was! We stopped and drank one last amazing capacinno before continuing on to Bamberg Hbf.

The popup coffee guy - best coffee in Bamberg!

Soon we were racing towards Erfurt on our 40 minute ICE ride. There were a few tense moments when the app for Katrina's Eurrail pass refused to work, but in the end the conductor told us not to worry. Of course as soon as he walked away, the app complied. We'll see if we have the same issue tomorrow!

In Erfurt just 20 minutes later, we checked into our rooms (which were actually ready at 11am go figure) and then ventured out into old town for a look-see. Our first port of call was the famous Krämerbrücke (merchant's bridge) that has shops built along both sides and is home to all kinds of artists and artisans. We spent time browsing the shops and even bought a trinket or two.

The Merchants’ Bridge (Krämerbrücke)

In need of caffeination, our next stop was the much recommended Cafe Füchsen; quite the student hangout by all accounts. I had a coffee made with spanish espresso - and very nice it was too. We all felt much recharged after our caffeinne injection. I had a nice conversation in broken german/english with a nice old German lady as I waited to pay. A really nice moment.

Cafe Füchsen with its spanish espresso.

Energised, and with half an hour still to kill before our lunch reservation, we headed to a couple of other old-town landmarks - the Old Synagogue and Fishmarkt. Fishmarkt was especially nice with it's beautiful town hall and baroque buildings.

Erfurt Fischmarkt

Soon it was time for lunch, and we headed to our reservation at Christoph's Wirthaus - a restaurant in the heart of old-town with a medieval theme. We ordered a round of mead, some white and some red (viking blood). We think maybe the mead was really red/white wine with honey mixed in but we can't be sure (it certainly tasted that way).

Christoph's Wirthaus

Viking mead? - prost!

Lunch at Christoph's Wirthaus

We ordered the GrilledHaxe (except for Clau who had a chicken schnitzel), and the Haxe was well worth the price of admission on its own. Say what you like about the fake mead, but the Haxe was so tender that it was literally falling right off the bone. Glorious!

Amazing GrilledHaxe - tender AF.

To wash the taste of the pretend mead out of my mouth, I ordered a Weizen that came in a stoneware mug. I dont know the brand of beer, but it really hit the spot. Eb ordered some 'honey beer', which unfortunately tasted like the white mead (I mean the white wine mixed with honey), mixed with beer. Very easy to drink, but somehow unsatisfying.

Bier #25 - Unnamed Weizen. Yum!

After our medieval extravaganza, we headed to the Erfurt christmas market - one of the top 5 markets in the country. It was immediately obvious why it ranks so highly. The setting was nothing short of spectacular, with the Dom St Marien and it neighbour The Church of St Severi looming over the proceedings.

Erfurt Weinachtmarkt - spectacular.

The market was very nicely set out and we had a great time browsing the stalls, We even picked up yet more christmassy nick knacks. I'm not sure how we'll get them all home at this rate.  I managed to gorge myself on yet another piece of Nuremberger Lebkuchen (my addiction can't be sated) and also finally found some Kartoffelpuffers. Eager as I was to stuff my face with them, they were so oily that they made me feel ill.

Kartofflepuffer with garlic sauce 

Before heading back to the hotel for the night we even took a quick look in the Dom and the Church. We found the typical jeebus worship-y stuff, with the Dom being particularly elaborate. The amount of time and energy spent on what are basically fairy stories still makes my head spin.