MGF Treffen 2002 day 5

A nice 'circular' route today, fairly short in mileage but packed full of stops, the first of which was to catch a train! Wernigerode is right on the old border between East and West Germany. Close to the town is a mountain called the Brocken, at the top of which is one of the old Russian border look out posts and there is also a steam train to get up there. We paid our fare and climbed on board and were treated to a sedate climb up the mountains until we reached the top at 1146 feet. The view was spectacular, truly stunning and not the sort of vista an Essex boy from the flat lands is used to! ;-) The surrounding forest is said to be inhabited by nocturnal good witches and in all the 'touristy' locations there were loads of them, pictures, models, mannequins etc. There was even a 'kiss me quick' style painted board with a hole cut out for your head – Stefan has a rather embarrassing photo of me which I am sure will be on the 'net in the near future! After a brief stop at the top we caught the return train and eventually reached the cars ready for the next stage.

A nice run through the forest roads saw us reaching our lunch stop, a place called Hohegeiß a quiet sleepy town. We found a restaurant/bar and had lunch (in my case a fantastic Tuna salad, filled with peppers, radishes, chillis and olives – yum!), before setting off once more, this time to the Torf Haus, the allies' look out post opposite the Brocken. The border is still visible today, being a line of cleared forest roughly equidistant between the two. The Brocken is the higher of the two points and therefore has the best view; it is also less touristy, the Allied side being very commercialised.

OK, time for Stefan's plan to post this lot on line, more later (probably from an Internet Café in Berlin).

SF signing off for now.... :-)
Continued…

Before I go any further, thanx to Stefan and Dieter for making the last posting possible, Dieter for lending me a disc and Stefan for letting me use his laptop and mobile phone uplink from his room (important to note this, all will be come clear during tomorrows report (can you tell that this has been edited before being posted?)) ;-)

OK, back to the day's events. Mike Satur had yet more work to do today so he stayed behind and Richard co-piloted with me meaning that our convoy was 2 MGs down in number. From the Torfhaus we set off at a sedate pace, I assume Ted is driving more slowly because of his passenger. Anyway, we came across the motorcyclist, pootling along so Ted decides to overtake. During the manoeuvre however, the biker decides to move over to the centre of the road and speed up! This of course makes the overtaking a lot more difficult, forcing Ted to stay out on the wrong side of the road for longer. My turn came shortly afterward and he did the same trick with me too. Not a nice chap! Next up was David, again the same trick, much to David's annoyance. If this had carried on I suspect he could have caused an accident, luckily we then proceeded to turn right and headed for the Oker dam and waterfall. Again, spectacular views along the man made lake and the dam itself was very impressive.

Finally we headed back to Wernigerode which is when I posted to the 'net. There is a thread on this BBS started by my mum telling me the name of my new nephew; it was nice to see when I am so far away. It is just coming up to midnight here as I type this following an excellent meal at the Rathaus (again), a stroll through the town and an ice cream – yum. :-)

Time for bed, got a lie in tomorrow, as we don't set off for Berlin until
mid day.

SF (Wernigerode – East Germany)

Treffeners of this day
Ted Newman
Andrew Phillips "Scarlet Fever"
Patrick & Ann Beet
Mike Nunn & Viv
David Smith & Jackie
Richard Tookey
Stefan Gibney & Jenny
Allessandro Faccetty
Erik Baekelant & Fran
Dieter Koennecke & Rosi
Mike Satur