By FRANK BARRETT
Daily Mail, 8 June 2009
If you ever visited communist-era East Germany you will remember a grey, depressed place that boasted full employment and top-notch health care but was somewhere which thousands were keen to escape even at the risk of being shot.
Now 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, much has improved in the east (after the investment of trillions of West German Euros, this is as it should be). But fortunately a few things haven't changed at all.
As you stand on the platform at Quedlinburg, a remarkable sight greets the eyes: that nostalgic whiff of coke is explained. Up the line puffs a steam train arriving with a jolly Thomas the Tank Engine toot on its whistle.
One of the things that didn't change about East Germany was steam. Communist regimes had a particular fondness for steam trains (Poland, for example, remains a steam trainspotter's paradise - for a fee these days they will even let enthusiasts man the steam locomotive footplate).
The rulers of the new united Germany were quickly aware that they had a major tourist draw on their hands: the steam trains were preserved and still run across a surprisingly comprehensive network.
The hills of Harz are busily alive with the glorious sound of steam engines.
And, significantly, the three lines that make up the Harz narrow-gauge railways covering some 80 miles of track are more than simply a tourist attraction - the trains run year round.
The lines are served by modern diesel trains as well as steam locomotives offering connections with mainline stations for inter-city journeys.
My fellow travellers were mostly couples, generally in the older age range. If it's hard not to like steam trains, it seems the holidays of Great Rail Journeys are equally addictive.
An extract from "Steam rail holidays: How breathing in the nostalgic whiff of coal lifted my Harz", by Frank Barrett, featured in the Daily Mail on 8 June 2009. To read the full article, click here.
Frank Barrett travelled on our Harz Mountains & the Rhine Gorge holiday in April 2009. Click here for more details of the tour.
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