142. Quedlinburg

Where: Quedlinburg, Germany
When: August 5-6, 2013
With: Dave

After leaving behind the city of Berlin and the lavishness of Potsdam, it was time to set off into the German countryside. Our first stop was in the small town of Quedlinburg. After parking the car and checking into our hotel, we approached this walled city that sits on a hill.

After crossing a tiny stream and climbing a flight of stairs, we crossed through the city walls to be greeted by a quiet, cobblestone street and the quintessential German village.

We didn't have any idea where to go, so we just kept going up looking for any signs of life. The town was so small, it was impossible to get lost, even with all the tiny, zigzagging lanes. Lining the way were uneven houses of varying shapes and sizes, piled on top of each other and sprouting ivy left and right. 

The town is famed for its large collection of authentic "half-timbered" houses that were built over the course of five centuries. This mode of construction involves using large pieces of wood to build the infrastructure of the house, but leaving the wood exposed on the outside, giving it that just-so-cute-you-want-to-squeeze-its-cheeks lattice look. 

Some houses used bricks to fill the space between the wood, others used some form of stucco. The varied effect of the materials and colors used made the town even more charming. 

After a few wrong turns and a bit of ambling, we made it to the city center. The main plaza was unfortunately under major construction (a problem that has plagued the town for years). However, this only slightly took away from the feeling that you were standing in a fairy tale village. 

We grabbed a seat in the plaza for a pint of beer to kick off our time here. 

A late afternoon stroll showed us just how tiny Quedlinburg is. 

One of the oldest structures in Germany was this house, dating back to the 1300s. 

So stinkin' cute. The lanes were rarely inhabited, the sun was warm, and the town was adorable, all a recipe for perfect strolling weather.

This house couldn't decide if it wanted stucco or bricks, so it just drew bricks on the stucco. Nice. 

Locals and tourists, enjoying the evening in a hidden square. 

For dinner, we went to a traditional Brauhaus (basically a tavern that brews its own beer). The best part of this was the beer garden in the back filled with locals. As the sun went down, we grabbed a table and were shortly joined by two men from Munich. They chatted with us about our trip and helped us interpret the menu. We felt extra proud when they commented that our itinerary was really well laid-out and commended our non-touristy stops along the way (aka Quedlinburg). We ate a lot and drank even more. It was basically everything I could have wanted in a German Biergarten.

After many, many steins of Bier, we still couldn't bring ourselves to go home. Instead, we wandered the quiet streets by night, marveling at this little town. 

While the first day had given us a little introduction to the layout of the town, the next day gave us the history that made this place significant. Founded in the 9th century, it was chosen by Queen Mathilda as the ideal location for her to build an abbey intended to educate the daughters of higher nobility following the death of her husband, King Henreich I. The school became so prominent in the years to come that the abbess of the school was always held in high esteem in the town. Now, the Quedlinburg Abbey and its surrounding castle continue to sit high over the city just as it did in the Middle Ages. 

The rock bed that the abbey was built on is still exposed and looks unruly while nestled between the evenly patterned half-timbered houses. 

At the top, a small garden sits beside the abbey, providing stunning views of Quedlinburg and the Harz mountain range that surrounds it.

The cathedral was our first look into the German style of churchs. A bit less open with fewer windows, the stone work was simpler and heavier than in French or English churches. The archways were thick and the altar sat at the top of a double flight of stairs, raised high above the churchgoers. This cathedral had quite the role during World War II as it is the burial place of King Heinrich, who was considered the "most German of all Germans".  Based on this, a weird Nazi cult tried to form a new religion that worshipped the tomb of King Heinrich.  Luckily, the cathedral was closed down shortly thereafter in 1938 and the town of Quedlinburg was thus able to escape the Allied bombings. However, certain pieces of Nazi regalia are still in the basement of the church, casting a weird light over this otherwise picturesque town.  

Across from the cathedral is the old castle, which now houses a museum containing artifacts dating back thousands of years that were discovered around the area. Additionally, many of the rooms of the castle have been refurbished to allow visitors to see how they would have looked while the castle was inhabited. A beautiful little courtyard along the edge of the castle had lovely views on the town below. 

A small restaurant sat next to the cathedral and provided the perfect meal and setting for the end of our Quedlinburg visit.

Despite its size, this little town packs quite the punch. While it's not high on the typical bucket list of German activities, it provides exactly the atmosphere you'd want to see in a quintessential German town.