Wernigerode calls itself the colourful town of the Harz, and it is no exaggeration. The old centre is a jumble of half-timbered houses in reds, greens and ochres, with carved beams and crooked upper floors, and the town hall at its heart looks like something from an illustrated book, with two pointed towers and a steep gable. It lies at the northern edge of the Harz, with a hilltop castle looking down from the slope and the high plateau of the Brocken in the distance.
The castle, a nineteenth-century fantasy of turrets and battlements built on older foundations, is a good example of romantic historicism, and the view from its terraces over the town and the plain is worth the climb. Below it, the Harz narrow-gauge railway, with its steam engines, runs from the town station up to the Brocken, the highest point in northern Germany at 1,141 metres. The trains are a living museum, and a trip to the summit on a clear day, with steam drifting past the spruce trees, is a delight. Tickets are sold at the station, and the line also runs to Nordhausen.
For a rider, Wernigerode makes an excellent night stop. The roads to the Harz plateau, towards Schierke and Elend, wind up through dense spruce woods in tight bends, with the Brocken looming above. The surface is generally good, but it is shaded and slow to dry, and fog and low cloud can come in quickly. In winter, snow and ice make these roads hazardous, and the high Harz can be closed by drifts.
The Harz was divided by the border between East and West Germany for forty years, and Wernigerode lay on the eastern side. The Brocken itself was a restricted military zone, topped by Soviet and East German listening posts, and was closed to the public until 1989. The scars of that time have mostly faded, but the border zone is now a green belt, with a hiking path along the old patrol road. In the evening, try a dish of Harz game with a dark local beer, and enjoy the walk through the lamplit lanes before bed.