Ich bin ein Berliner!: The Harz Mountain Region #1: Wernigerode

So, the next interviews were in the Harz mountain region. The Harz really stands out because it's pretty much the only mountain chain in northern Germany. I just loved being in 'mountains' again and REALLY enjoyed the buildings, etc. in Wernigerode (Ver-nee-guh-road-uh), which is one of the main cities of the region.

Here is the City Hall....

This is what most Americans think Germany looks like, but sadly enough not a lot of it does. I REALLY liked Wernigerode!

Town square...

A street, just so you can see....

So here is the part that is creepy about the Harz, Wikipedia says:

In Germany, Walpurgisnacht (or Hexennacht, meaning Witches' Night), the night from April 30 to May 1, is the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring.
Walpurgis Night (in German folklore) the night of April 30 (May Day's eve), when witches meet on the Brocken mountain and hold revels with their gods..."
Brocken is the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany. It is noted for the phenomenon of the Brocken spectre and for witches' revels which reputedly took place there on Walpurgis night.
The Brocken Spectre is a magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown onto a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. The phenomenon was first reported on the Brocken.
—Taken from Oxford Phrase & Fable.
A scene in Goethe's Faust Part One is called "Walpurgisnacht", and one in Faust Part Two is called "Classical Walpurgisnacht".
In some parts of northern coastal regions of Germany, the custom of lighting huge Beltane fires is still kept alive, to celebrate the coming of May, while most parts of Germany have a derived Christianized custom around Easter called "Easter fires".
In rural parts of southern Germany it is part of popular youth culture to play pranks on Walpurgisnacht, e.g. tampering with neighbors' gardens, hiding possessions, or spraying graffiti on private property. These pranks occasionally result in serious damage to property or bodily injury.

(So there you have it, hence my picture with a witch ('She turned me into a newt!' A newt?' 'I got better...'). Witches are all over and apparently April 30, Wernigerode is FULL of thousands of 'witches' who make their up up to Brocken Mountain...)

This house and the detail was just amazing...it's a restaurant now, have no idea what it used to be...

Details...

'I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!' ;)

Wernigerode Schloss (castle) at night. I wish my camera could take better/non-blurry pix, but going along with the 'scary' theme...it works, doesn't it? ;)

'Storm the castle!'

I stole this pic from Wikipedia. It truly is 'romantic' Germany to the T! I mean G! ;)

Then the guy that I stayed with (his parents were refugees from today's Ukraine) drove me around all over. Here is our journey...

Into the Harz we go!

This is the old East-West German border. He told me how the whole place used to be mined, etc. It's literally 20 minutes from his house! Craziness...and for decades they couldn't go over the border....

And we just did! Now we're in Braunlage, 'old' West Germany! Crazy how everything was so close, but no getting closer....sad, but true...

We took a visit inside one of Braunlage's churches...

I really liked this photo with the glass-stained windows....

Wood, wood...very nice!

He was about to take me to what he said was always on postcards of Wernigerode the 'Sterinerne Renne', but then he stopped and showed me this. At the beginning of this 'famous' place was a concentration camp of sorts :( So much beauty and so much horror - craziness and I don't get it....hmm...

Some of the buildings of the old camp. Today it's part of a battery-making company.

This is on the trail to the Steinerne Renne where 'Hurricane' Kyrill slammed into Europe, especially Germany back in Jan. 2007. It just wiped the trees out!