Checking out the Harz Mountains in 2003

In the autumn of 2003, Mike came out to see what was going on over in Germany. By visiting Groningen that time, he became my most frequent visitor - a record which has now been broken by my parents, but still a great achievement at the time. We were in central Germany for a weekend, staying in Wernigerode, which was in the GDR (East Germany) before reunification.

We spent Saturday out in the hills around the big attraction, the Brocken (1141 m). We walked up to the summit, scorning the curious little steam train. An old communist listening station still sits on the top:

View from the summit, over the Harz park:

Then on Sunday we motored on over to the south side of the park, taking in a memorial of a concentration camp on the way back, which was unsurprisingly hard going. At Mittelbau Dora (near Nordhausen), V-2 rockets were assembled for launch against London.

On the way back, we paused in Hannover to admire lots of badly dressed people, and a rather fine opera house.

And that was that, as far as the Harz went for that weekend. Not at all bad, and only 4 hours drive from Groningen. The Harrison returned in the summer of 2004 for some mountain biking, but has not yet had the pleasure of trying the ski slopes in winter.