Quedlinburg holds more than a thousand half-timbered houses, and it is hard to take a bad photograph there. The whole old town, with its winding lanes, market square and hilltop castle, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognised in 1994, and it has survived largely intact through centuries of wars, partly because it was neglected in East German times and escaped the demolition of the old quarters that happened elsewhere.
The town is also one of the places where German history began. Henry I, called the Fowler, who became king of the East Frankish realm in 919, was buried at Quedlinburg, and his son Otto the Great made the town one of the centres of the empire. The Stiftskirche of St Servatius, a Romanesque church on the castle hill, holds his tomb, and the treasury has a collection of medieval manuscripts and relics. A women's abbey ruled the town for centuries.
With about twenty-three thousand people, Quedlinburg is the right size for an overnight stay, with a range of hotels and guesthouses, good restaurants and cafes, and fuel in the outskirts. The cobbled streets can be tricky on a loaded bike, so park at your hotel or a public car park and walk. Evening is the best time, when the tour groups have gone, the light is low and the half-timbered houses glow. Breakfast in a bakery on the market square, with a view of the town hall and a statue of Roland, the symbol of civic freedom, is a pleasant way to begin the next day.
The ride in from the Harz or the foreland is gentle, with smooth roads and light traffic, and the town appears over the fields with its castle and church towers on the hill. In winter, the town has a Christmas market that is among the prettiest in the region, and in spring the gardens and orchards are in bloom. Be careful of cobbles and tram-like lines in the streets, which can be slippery when wet.