Goslar is the town where Harz mining became legend. For more than a thousand years, miners dug silver, lead, copper and zinc from the Rammelsberg hill just outside the town, and the wealth built an imperial city. Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire held court at the Kaiserpfalz, the great palace hall beside the old town, which was built in the eleventh century and rebuilt in the nineteenth. The Rammelsberg mine closed in 1988, after a thousand years of work, and UNESCO listed the mine and the old town in 1992, later adding the water management system of the Upper Harz.
The old town is a delight, with about fifteen hundred half-timbered houses, a market square with a town hall, and narrow lanes of slate-roofed houses. On the market square a clock chimes with a little parade of miners, and the cafes serve Harzer Kase and local beer. Goslar is also the home of Gose, a sour, salty beer named after the river that runs through the town, which is now fashionable again.
The town stands on the northern edge of the Harz, and for riders it is a gateway to a very good area. Roads climb south into the mountains, through spruce forests, to Altenau and Clausthal-Zellerfeld, and east through the valley of the Oker. The Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz, is further east. The roads are well surfaced, with long bends and gentle climbs, and the forests, many damaged by bark beetle in recent years, give wide views. Weather in the Harz can be cold and foggy even in summer.
Goslar has about forty-three thousand people, and fuel stations are easy to find on the edge of town, with Langelsheim, a smaller place, a short way along the road. It makes a good place to fill up before you go into the hills, where stations are fewer. Autumn colours are lovely, and winter brings snow to the high roads. Take an hour to walk through the old town before you set off. The town rewards slow looking.