Ah, Wernigerode

On Friday, we got up and met at the train station to go to a little town in the Harz Mountains called Wernigerode (pronounced: Ver-nig-a-road-a). This town is such that when you tell a German Native that you are going to Wernigerode, they look at you in utter disbelief and say something to the effect of "Why are you going THERE? There's nothing to see in Wernigerode." Much like the reaction we would have if someone said they were going to Dove Creek, CO. Yeah, see what I mean? So, at the beginning of this little excursion, I wasn't sure what to expect. We took a two hour train ride and the first thing I see when I get out of the train station in Wernigerode is this:
I knew right then that I would love this place. Any town that has it's own Castle is, in my book, wonderful, amazing and otherwise just perfect.

We took a bus to our little hotel. It dropped us off at the bottom of this ridiculous hill and we had to climb up it to get to the actual hotel. Well, actually, half of us had to. The other half of the group took Taxi-Vans and were dropped off at the front doors. We stayed at the Schanznehaus. It was adorable. I roomed with Sierra and our window overlooked just trees. It was so beautiful. The pillow was amazing and the bathroom was HUGE and clean and I wanted to cry cuz it was so wonderful. This is, of course, in comparison to my measly little room here in Leipzig and also to the Hostel in which I stayed at the beginning of my trip. Those also made me want to cry, but for a completely different reason. After we got settled in (meaning, we dropped our bags on the floor and locked the door behind us), we went downstairs and ate lunch. I had Gulasch, but it wasn't like I think of Gulasch. It was more like a pork stew. Not the best thing I've ever eaten. Ah well. Then we went on a city tour. Our guide was adorable! She was this little old lady with funny shows and she spoke in English, but her accent was so funny and you could tell that she had memorized what she was going to say. The town was just as cute as it could be. It was what you would think of as typical German. I kept expecting men in hosen with tubas and accordions to show up. But alas. no. The town was gearing up for it's annual Rathausfest, which is it's Festival for City Hall. They had stages and vendors and people ALL over the place. (After the city tour, we went to the Castle, but I'll talk about that later.) The Fest was wonderful. It was just a little town, celebrating their past. They had beer and bratwurst with mustard and you could walk all over the place and just see people having a grand old time. In the evening a band took the stage and played a bunch of old 80s music. In english. Of course, people from our group started dancing. They were the only ones. By the end of the night, others were dancing too, but for the most part it was the Americans. It was weird cuz they would play an American song and then do a little speech in German. The also played a bunch of old German songs (like Nena - you know - 99 Red Balloons). It was fun. Even the old people were doing a little bit of dancing. I really enjoyed myself and didn't get to bed til 12:30 (gasp! I know!!).

Before that, however, we went to Schloß Wernigerode (the Castle). It was old and really neat inside. I want to live in a castle. Here are some of my favorite pictures. They are all from the outside because we weren't allowed to take any inside.
Don't you just love the fog? It's so weird and amazing and wonderful!
This gargoyle is so cute! I wanted to take him home with me. I would have named him Harold. But alas. They wouldn't let me. sigh.
And that, my friends was Schloß Wernigerode. I really loved this castle. It has such history and character. Can you imagine what those walls have seen? Oh to be an immortal fly on the wall.