Church of St. Wiperti and Hainich

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Church of St. Wiperti

   Quedlinburg is a town that survived by being overlooked. It escaped the worst of the wars and the building booms, and so it has more than thirteen hundred half-timbered houses, from the late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, packed into a tangle of cobbled lanes at the foot of the Harz mountains. UNESCO listed the town in 1994, and walking through it, you feel as though you have fallen into a picture book of a German town, with leaning facades, carved beams and window boxes.

   Read the complete Church of St. Wiperti write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Church of St. Wiperti is where the day begins. Next is Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of.

2. 2. Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of

   Goslar is a small city at the northern edge of the Harz, and it is hard to overstate how much money and power sat here in the Middle Ages. The Rammelsberg hill, just south of the town, held a vast body of silver, lead, copper and zinc ore, and mining went on for about a thousand years, until the mine closed in 1988. The Ottonian and Salian emperors built their palace in Goslar because the silver paid for it. The imperial palace, the Kaiserpfalz, still stands in a big, over-restored form on the edge of the old town. UNESCO listed the mine and the old town together in 1992, and in 2010 the Upper Harz water system was added to the same site.

   Read the complete Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hainich.

3. 3. Hainich

   Hainich is a long, low ridge of beech forest in the middle of Germany, and it has the distinction of being one of the few places in Europe where beech trees have been left to grow old. The national park, established in 1997, covers a large part of the ridge, and its oldest stands are part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other Regions of Europe, a UNESCO listing. You notice the difference at once: tall, straight silver trunks, massive fallen logs covered in fungi, and a forest floor that smells of mould and mushrooms.

   Read the complete Hainich write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 194 km into the recorded legs you reach Hainich. Next is back through Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of.

4. 4. back through Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of, late in the day. Next is Church of St. Wiperti, 96 km on.

5. 5. Church of St. Wiperti

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Church of St. Wiperti write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Church of St. Wiperti. That is the ride.