Goslar is a thousand years old and looks every year of it. The old imperial city lies at the northern foot of the Harz, and its centre is a miniature of medieval Germany: steep slate roofs, half-timbered houses, narrow lanes, and a market square with a golden glockenspiel that, at set hours, acts out scenes from the town's mining history.
For several centuries, Goslar was one of the most important places in the German empire. The emperors held court here in the Kaiserpfalz, a vast palace built in the eleventh century and heavily restored in the nineteenth, whose great hall is still impressive and decorated with wall paintings. The wealth that supported it came from the Rammelsberg, a mountain just outside town where silver, copper and lead were mined for nearly a thousand years, until the mine closed in 1988. Today the old mine is a museum and, with the old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
For a rider, Goslar is a natural gateway to the high roads of the Harz. From the town, the road climbs towards Hahnenklee and Clausthal-Zellerfeld in a series of long, forested bends, with the surface good and the traffic light on weekdays. Spruce woods and mining ponds line the route, and the landscape has a feeling of age, as if the mountains had been worked for so long that they have become part of the human world. In autumn, the larches turn gold among the dark firs.
The old town has a good choice of cafes and restaurants, and a plate of Harz specialities, perhaps roast game or sausage with sauerkraut, goes well with a Gose, a sour, salty beer that was brewed in Goslar for centuries and is now sold in many bars. Langelsheim, seven kilometres away, is a smaller town with more modern amenities. If you can, take a walk through the old streets before the day trippers arrive, and listen for the church bells. The old town is largely pedestrian, so find a car park on the edge and walk in.