Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [204]
Goldene Krone ( 9300; goldene.krone@t-online.de; Am Kronenplatz 3; s €59-65, d €79-88, ste €110-125; ) Heinrich Heine graced the pillows here while on his Harz journey in 1824. This is not only the best address in town, it’s right in the middle of it. Rooms are bright, a very decent size and decorated in tasteful shades of blue. Wi-fi is free. The Italian restaurant downstairs is one of the better places around too, with pasta, pizza and meat dishes (pasta €7.90, mains €9.80 to €22).
Restaurant Glück Auf ( 1616; An der Marktkirche 7; mains €11-18; 11.30am-2.30pm & 5.30-10pm Thu-Tue) This outstanding traditional restaurant established in 1720 is almost an attraction in itself: the historic banquet hall holds about 280 people and has galleries and even a stage at one end. The menu has a good choice of game. Downstairs is a surprise for the kids on the theme of Harz folk tales.
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Getting There & Around
Regular bus services leave ‘Bahnhof’, the former train station, and Kronenplatz for Goslar (bus 830). Disembark at Thomas-Merten-Platz for the Bergwerksmuseum. Take bus 840 for St Andreasberg and bus 831 for Altenau. The B241 leads north to Goslar and south to Osterode, while the B242 goes east to Braunlage and St Andreasberg. To reach the A7, take the B242 west.
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EASTERN HARZ
* * *
WERNIGERODE
03943 / pop 33,500
A bustling, attractive town on the northern edge of the Harz, Wernigerode is a good starting point for exploring the eastern regions of the Harz National Park. The winding streets of the Altstadt are flanked by pretty half-timbered houses, and high above the Altstadt hovers a romantic ducal castle from the 12th century.
During the early Middle Ages Wernigerode was hampered by centuries of royal squabbles. Fires followed in the 15th and 16th centuries, changing the face of Wernigerode forever, and later the Thirty Years’ War took its population to the brink and back.
Today it is the northern terminus of the steam-powered narrow-gauge Harzquerbahn (see the boxed text, below), which has chugged along the breadth of the Harz for almost a century; the line to the summit of the Brocken (1142m), northern Germany’s highest mountain, also starts here.
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Orientation
The bus and train stations are on the northern side of town at the end of Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse. The ducal castle is southeast of Markt.
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Information
Harz-Klinikum Wernigerode ( 610; Ilsenburger Strasse 15) Medical services.
Police ( 6530; Nicolaiplatz 4)
Post office (Burgstrasse 19)
Tele.Internet Center Westerntor ( 625 046; Westernstrasse 36; per 15min €0.50; 10am-11pm Mon-Sat, 11am-11pm Sun) Internet access with Skype, telephones.
Volksbank (Breite Strasse 4) Banking services and ATM.
Wernigerode Tourismus ( 553 7835; www.wernigerode-tourismus.de, in German; Marktplatz 10; 8.30am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat, 10am-3pm Sun May-Oct, 8.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat, 10am-3pm Sun Nov-Apr) Tourist information, free map and room-booking service.
Zimmervermittlung und Information am Krummelschen Haus ( 606 000; Krummelsches Haus, Breite Strasse 70-72; 10am-6pm May-Oct, 10am-4pm Nov-Apr) Private tourist information and room-booking service.
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Sights
ALTSTADT
The colourful and spectacular towered Rathaus on Markt began life as a theatre around 1277, but what you see today is mostly late-Gothic from the 16th century. The artisan who carved the town hall’s 33 wooden figures was said to have fallen foul of the authorities, and if you look closely you can see a few of his mocking touches. The neo-Gothic fountain (1848) was dedicated to charitable nobles, whose names and coats of arms are immortalised on it.
One of the prettiest half-timbered houses in town is in the cosy Oberpfarrkirchhof, which surrounds