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Take advantage of our latest saving of up to £30 per person when booking European and UK Winter and Spring holidays on or before 1st June 2018.
Take advantage of our latest saving of up to £30 per person when booking European and UK Winter and Spring holidays on or before 1st June 2018.
The Harz Mountains' timeless towns and landscapes are perfect for a taste of Advent tradition in Germany. Our tour visits three Christmas markets, two UNESCO-listed Old Towns and enjoys an exhilarating steam train ride.
We depart St Pancras by Eurostar after meeting at our exclusive Departure Office. In Brussels our journey continues to Cologne, where we change trains for Hanover. The final leg of our journey takes us by coach to Wernigerode, where we spend the next five nights at the HKK Hotel.
This morning we experience one of the highlights of our tour - a wintry journey on the stunning Brocken Railway through the snowy forests to the summit of the Brocken Mountain.
As well as being the Harz's tallest peak, the Brocken Mountain is the host of Germany's highest narrow-gauge railway station. Later we descend back into Wernigerode, and enjoy time to explore its wonderful traditional Christmas Market, in front of the Town Hall. Wernigerode is a charming town, with elaborate half-timbered buildings overlooked by a stunning castle, and is brilliantly illuminated and decorated at this time of year.
Our rail excursion takes us to Quedlinburg, one of Germany's best kept secrets. The Old Town has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status and is home to one of the best preserved collections of medieval buildings in Germany, with its wonderful Romanesque Collegiate Church. The town is the perfect place to sample the true atmosphere of German Christmas Market tradition.
You are free on Day 4 to explore Wernigerode. You may perhaps wish to take a ride on the spectacular Harzquerbahn narrow-gauge railway or visit the impressive Wernigerode Castle,. On Day 5 we head to Goslar, another UNESCO World Heritage site. Adorned with over 1,500 half-timbered houses, a superb setting for one of the most charming Christmas Markets in Germany, we enjoy a guided tour here before time at leisure.
We transfer to Hanover to join our train, travelling first to Cologne and then to Brussels. Here we join the connecting Eurostar service to London.
Please note that while every departure of this tour will feature the same excursions, the order may differ from that shown above.
Provisional departure and return times, where available, can be found together with our dates and prices by clicking on the 'Prices & Availability' button. We write to all booked customers approximately 10 weeks prior to the start of their tour to advise the exact departure and return time for their particular group.
An escorted experience and all travel arrangements
Comfortable accommodation in your destination
Delicious meals included
Exciting excursions and free time to explore
Enhancing your tour
We had a wonderful trip to the Harz Mountains Christmas Markets. As neither of us knew anything about the area, it was a great benefit to have outings organised for us to see and hear about the area.
The train ride up Brocken Mountain was a real highlight - a pity it was a total white-out at the top, but the views on the way up were very memorable. As usual, we were well looked after by Great Rail Journeys and our Tour Manager was extremely helpful, even organising an extra guided walk for those of us who were interested, which turned out to be most of the group. The hotel provided a wonderful selection of tasty food and the service was excellent.
I recommend this trip to everyone.
A very good tour with snow, steam trains and three varied Christmas markets plus a very competent Tour Manager.
The hotel food and rooms were excellent although the admin of drinks at mealtime could be improved.
It is a Standard class tour and the problem here is the reserved train seats are always occupied with passengers who haven't reserved. It took up to 30 mins to move said passengers and their luggage elsewhere: not a pleasant experience. My next tour will definately be first class travel.
From the off the atmosphere was friendly and jolly as we set off to enjoy the festive atmosphere of northern Germany in the snow. There were blips in the usual efficiency of the german rail network but, with the help of our Tour Manager, Alex, we survived that and got to know each other better.
On arrival at our destination of Hahnenklee the snow was falling and the trees were already looking beautiful in their white coats. The ponds across from the hotel were frozen and surrounded by white tufted fringes. It all boded well. Despite a late arrival there was plenty of hot food awaiting us and the rooms were spacious and warm.
Over the next four days we explored the most picturesque destinations in the area. Goslar, Wernigerode and Quedlinburg all offered up a festive atmosphere with their brightly lit markets, stunning architecture and beautifully decorated shops and cafes. We drank it all in enthusiastically along with hot chocolate topped with cream and gluwein. People were very friendly and welcoming despite our lack of German - but we did try!
The optional trip to the summit of Mount Brocken, the highest point of the Harz, was spectacular. Early on, we wound through the forest where the boughs of the trees were bent heavy with snow, looking like the famous witches of the area. Further up, clearings appeared through which we saw wonderful views of the opposite slopes. At the top we were met by a lunar landscape - the air icily cold but so fresh. Again, a hot meal and a warming glass of gluwein warmed us up enough to venture out to take in the sights - looking down over the valleys. Travelling by steam train in these conditions added to the atmosphere as the pace was slow enough to take it all in.
On our last evening, our Tour Manager organised a torch-lit guided walk around the village and through the woods, ending up in a warm and welcoming bar where we sampled our last gluwein of the trip and reminisced over the past few days. It was the best possible way to end a fantastic holiday.
What a wonderful journey that was. Everything you could wish for: cold, snow, sunshine, comfortable hotel and good company.
The steam engines were wonderful as they effortlessly pulled the train to the top of the Brocken. A tip for this trip is to make use of the buses if the steam railway isn't running, as you get a wonderful view as the road travels almost as high as the Brocken. We used the 265 from Wernigerode to Rubeland to visit the caves and it was well worth doing, only taking up the afternoon. You have to use the bus station near the railway and not the one in town though.
It is also well worth searching out the Henry Moore sculpture - Goslar Warrior - that seems to be abandoned at the Rear of the Kaiser's Palace.
I particularly like the friendship that evolves between all members of the group throughout the time we are together. On all our trips, people have rallied round to help others that might be less able. We were really sorry to see all the others depart their separate ways from St Pancras. People we might have known for less than a week.
Thank you for the opportunity to say how much I enjoyed my recent trip to Wernigerode with Paul in charge. I welcome the chance to say how great it was as the lady next to me in the train wrote a book about the tour and I just said I enjoyed it.
I feel that some people expected a lot more than I did. I was most pleasantly surprised at how good it all was; it was excellent value for money and went very well.
The hotel was very good and was geared to tours. I thought the food was very good, but I have experience of providing bulk catering and I think some people were expecting 5-star treatment.
The trip up the Brocken was amazing fun as the weather at the top was so unutterably foul! I was determined to see the museum at the summit and I achieved this despite fearing I would be blown over.
Quedlinburg and Goslar were also lovely. I liked having a free day and I was able to 'lose' the rest of the tour when I went for dinner so I was very happy.
A really good trip and I'm hoping to go back to the area on my own in the summer.
Visit traditional German Christmas Markets in the Harz Mountains
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