Matters of the Harz

We're in Halberstadt, Germany. It's market day in late May 2007 and we take a quite stroll around town in the morning, keeping the moths in our wallets and avoiding getting run over by the trams. A nice, sunny weather; so far.

The afternoon starts to look ominous on our way to the Huysburg. After we've finished gawking at the interior of the chapel, it's persisting with rain. At least until we're comfortably back inside the car and back on the road.

On day 2, we find ourselves atop the Hexentanzplatz in the Harz mountains. A place where, legend says, the witches conducted their sinister rituals. A little later, we're in the valley below; in Thale. Daylight hours permit a visit to some of the locals and immigrants; at the zoo.

Day 3 has us cruising to nearby Danstedt to see a preserved windmill; that had been "working" up to 1953. We buy some freshly-baked bread from the bake-house next to the mill. Still milling around, we make our way past the polyethylene crops to an open day at a water mill in the vicinity (Klein-Quenstedt), but it's not the open day; so it's back to Halberstadt for lunch.

My sister's cousin takes her to a meet-up in Wernigerode later in the day.

Next day is open day down at t' mill. They've reconstructed the mill pretty well but the creek for the water supply is quite over-grown so they have to use an electric pump to supply the water to turn the water wheel.

Our final day based in Halberstadt has us heading North to our ancestral stamping grounds in Hundisburg. We head up to the castle for a squiz, then head into the old town towards the old cemetry. Failing to dig up any obvious relatives, we head back to the castle and dodge the rain in the "Baroque Gardens".

On our way back to Halberstadt, we take an excellent guided tour of the old brickworks on the edge of Hundisburg. Part of the brickworks is being used to make bricks, paving and tiles for restoration work throughout Germany. Clay mixes and firing methods are critical for authentic restoration.