Harz Edge Overnight from Hamburg · short arc

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Hamburg south gate

   Harburg was its own town for most of its history, and some residents still say so. Standing on the south bank of the Elbe, across the great river from Hamburg, it grew up as a Hanoverian and later Prussian harbour town, with its own castle, canal and industries, until the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937 swallowed it into the city. The old inner harbour has been reborn as a district of offices and cafes, and the technical university stands on a former industrial site. It is a rougher, more honest part of Hamburg than the lakeside villas of the north.

   Read the complete Hamburg south gate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hamburg south is where the day begins. Next is Lüneburg.

2. 2. Lüneburg fuel gate

   Lüneburg got rich on salt, and you can still see that in the brick. For centuries brine from under the town was boiled into the white salt that was shipped to Lübeck and used to preserve the herring of the Baltic, and the money from this trade paid for the Gothic town hall, the gabled merchant houses and the old crane by the Ilmenau. The Hanseatic League was good to Lüneburg. The streets are lined with stepped brick gables, many of them leaning a little because of subsidence from the salt mines below, which gives the whole old town a gently drunken look.

   Read the complete Lüneburg fuel gate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lüneburg is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Wernigerode overnight edge.

3. 3. Wernigerode overnight edge

   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.

   Read the complete Wernigerode overnight edge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   A break here. Next is Sankt Andreasberg bends.

4. 4. Sankt Andreasberg bends

   Sankt Andreasberg is a small town of two thousand at roughly six hundred metres in the Upper Harz, a mining place that has lived on silver, in one way or another, for five hundred years. The lodes were worked from the sixteenth century, and the Grube Samson, a mine here, is famous for its water-driven ore hoist, which kept working until the 1900s and is preserved as a museum, an astonishing piece of engineering from the age of waterwheels. You can still see the old ditches and ponds that fed the mines across the hills, many of them now loved by walkers.

   Read the complete Sankt Andreasberg bends write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sankt Andreasberg bends, about halfway. Next is Torfhaus Harz high point.

5. 5. Torfhaus Harz high point

   Torfhaus is a scattering of buildings on the high road across the Harz, at about eight hundred metres, where the road crosses a wide, boggy plateau of moor and spruce. There is no village here to speak of, just a car park, a few places to eat and the visitor centre of the Harz National Park, and its popularity comes from a view: from the edge of the plateau you look east across a broad valley to the Brocken, 1,141 metres high and bare on top, the highest peak of the Harz. Altenau, six and a half kilometres away, and Bad Harzburg, nine, are the nearest towns for fuel.

   Read the complete Torfhaus Harz high point write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Torfhaus Harz high point tops the climb. Next is Goslar high-road.

6. 6. Goslar high-road entry

   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.

   Read the complete Goslar high-road entry write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 302 km.