Germany and back to the Netherlands!

Germany (again) 20Aug 2009

Just travelling along singing a song - side by side!

We entered what was the old DDR at Bad Schandau and headed for the Harz area but diverted to Seeburg as the weather was very warm and motorway driving didn’t appeal, but a small lakeside campsite did. Had a swim - just what we needed to cool off.!

The Harz mountains are more like large hills, the highest being around 1175 m with rolling vistas and many small lakes.  But we hadn’t realised just how much mining over a period of 600-800 years had formed the Harz area through man made lakes, reforestation & the renaturing of slagheaps.   Staying at Braunlage, a former East German border town overnight, we took the gondola cableway to the top of the Wurmberg (950m) where we had views of “The Brocken” a former Soviet viewpost for the military. We walked back down the 4 kms to town through the pines, before driving  on to Zellerfeld (stopping to photograph the splendid narrow guage steam operating all through the Harz). The town  boasts a small  mine museum, a glassworks where we could see glass being blown and a 16 bell carrillon in a small park.  Especially cute givingh us a 5 minute concert of folk tunes while we sat in the sun. The Main thrust now of the Harz area seems to be an endless (well 27 anyway) amount of  fun parks, bird and animal parks coupled with skiing (low rise!) & cross country in winter. We made a late decision to travel the Weser valley and visit Hameln - a very pleasant meander down from the Harz .

Hameln Burghers, as you are doubtless aware, in 1248 contracted the colourful Pied piper to rid the town of rats, which he did, then the town burghers (buggers?) welched on the deal so he returned a few months later and piped all the kids under 4 away, never to be seen again! We arrived in time to see a wonderful 15 minute performance of carillon, bells and models re-enacting the scenes of the day. The town is a masterpiece of a medieval city with pristine buildings from the 15^th and 16^th century, not really needing the legend but there are pied piper statues, windows and a dedicated piper museum. The river Weser threads through the town making a pleasant riverside walk along the banks. 

Onwards to the Netherlands, scene of our departure way way back 10 months ago!  Stayed at a splendid camp site some 5 kms from the Hague and Scheveningen where our friends live.  Located amongst sports areas including hockey, rugby, cycling, running etc the site was adjacent to loads of cycling tracks and when checking in the comment was “you don’t have bikes?”.

Spent a few lovely days seeing our friends, walking to the beach with a couple of hot days followed by very windy and wet days.