Up the Brocken

After huffily accusing Mr Fluffy of taking the wrong path I had to eventually concede that I was wrong and we had, indeed, entered the walkway to the Brocken mountain. Having been given the choice of either an easy walk beside the track for the railway or a steep rocky ascent, guess which one Graham chose? Harumph!

heading off

We drove to Shierke this morning and he managed to persuade me to join him in the 2 hour (ish) hike up the mysterious and witchy mountain.

spooky forest

The initial confusion on the trek was due to a distinct lack of proper signage but after some help from the tourist information centre we trudged up the Brocken through ancient forests, hearing the occasional distant whistle from the steam trains reminding us of that easier alternative route. As we neared the top, just 1 km from the summit, there was a lovely clearing and the sight of a flat-ish road to continue our upward journey. At the exact moment we entered the clearing the clouds burst forth and totally peed it down. ‘Get the waterproofs out of the rucksack - quickly’!

is that a witch I see flying there?

Too late – it hit us before we could get the jackets out or run to the trees for cover – the sunny morning instantly turned into a freezing winter scene. Drenched and cold we carried on to the popular summit to fight with 100s of other tourists for shelter.

stone on the Brocken

We eventually managed to get a bowl of hot goulash and a rather dubious bratwurst based noodle dish in an extremely busy café full of soggy steamy people. This managed to warm the cockles as we took amusing witchy based photos and watched dense fog encircle the famous viewpoint.

inappropriate outfit to climb a mountain 

We decided to take the narrow gauge railway back to Shierke and as the train left the station the sun started to shine again. Typical! It’s a bit of a train aficionado’s delight with people coming from all over the world to ride on them.

A bit bedraggled

Mr F loved the powerful steam engines, the noise, the smell, the vibration, everything about them – it’s a boy thing. I just liked not having to walk.