With almost 40 million foreign overnight guests every year, Germany is one of the seven most visited countries in the world. There are 6,135 museums, 366 theatres, 34 leisure and adventure parks, 45,000 tennis courts, 648 golf courses, 190,000 km of hiking trails, 40,000 kilometres of long-distance cycle paths as well as holiday and theme routes available for use in tourism.
Business and congress tourism is of outstanding importance; Germany is the most important international trade fair location with several world-leading trade fairs: Caravan Salon Düsseldorf, CMT Stuttgart, etc. The Internationale Tourism-Börse Berlin is the world's leading tourism trade fair. Germany also has the highest density of festivals like Wacken, Rock am Ring,
Outstanding sights: Sanssouci Castle - Brandenburg Gate - Cologne Cathedral - Saxon Switzerland National Park - Wadden Sea - Hamburg Harbor - Brocken - Old Town of Hameln - Externsteine - Wartburg - Neuschwanstein Castle - Zugspitze near Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Königsee in Berchtesgadener Land - Old town of Bamberg - Imperial castle in Nuremberg - Mainau Island in Lake Constance - Lichtenstein Castle - Meersburg - Ulm Minster - etc.
Once again on a hiking tour in the Harz Mountains near Clausthal-Zellerfeld, we met a young Dutchman who was hiking with a backpack, a small tent, an insulating mat and a sleeping bag.
A cold and strong wind awaits us in Dangast, although the place adorns itself with the confusing title "southernmost North Sea resort", if one associates "southern" with pleasant temperatures.
Once again traveling along the East Frisian coast in Northern Germany, we had the pleasure of attending a special event, the Kloot Shooting Competition.
Still minus temperatures at night with white, hoarfrost covered cars in the morning, but the warming sun is already appearing in the bright blue sky over Schortens.
Anyone traveling through Friesland / East Friesland as a tourist will occasionally come across warning traffic signs on somewhat remote roads, the typeface of which is unknown at least in large parts of Germany and is therefore sometimes misunderstood, especially when suddenly and unexpectedly a cheerful-looking group of active people appears athletes appear in the middle of the street, which one would hardly expect as a car driver.
It is not wrong to claim that the far north is so "flat" that you can see on Friday who is coming to visit on Sunday. An interesting phrase that, like many sayings in our everyday language, will certainly also contain a grain of truth.
Actually, we had planned to visit the Blossom Festival in Wiesmoor this year, which is well-known far beyond the country's borders.
We were happy to accept the invitation from Wangerland in the north of Germany, as the focus of the visit should be the medieval festival on the beach of the North Sea resort of Schillig - Horumersiel.
Enjoy a ride on the Harle along the promenade from Carolinensiel to Harlesiel, spring is fast approaching, something like this could be the advertising slogan for the holiday resorts of Carolinensiel – Harlesiel.
Harle Bay was originally a bay about 15 kilometres wide and about 10 kilometres inland, into which the Harle River of the same name drained.
Towards evening we had first come to the city centre and the pedestrian area of the second largest city in the district of Goslar, so the beautiful lighting of the Heilbad am Harz especially caught our eye in the run-up to Christmas.
Our first city tour in Goslar initially came to a surprising end at the market church of St. Cosmas and Damian, because no sooner had we climbed the 226 steps to the viewing platform than the bells caused a more than violent shock: deafening noise when you stand directly underneath!
After a good 90-minute e-bike ride from the Prahljust campsite with a few photo stops along the way, we reached Goslar city centre after 22.6 kilometres. The Harz has been an important ore mining area since Roman times.
Another interesting encounter along the way on the way to Goslar: The wooden stave church in Hahnenklee was built entirely without screws and nails. We were on our way from the Prahljust campsite near Clausthal-Zellerfeld when the cycle route led us to the edge of Hahnenklee-Bockswiese, where we came across the stave church.
Our early spring tour high in the cold north of Germany was finished and we decided for a short trip to the Harz Nature Park on the way back, a small stopover, which should interrupt the journey and at the same time convey further impressions.
During our hike around the center of Altenau (Altenauer Runde) we came across the Okerteich, built in 1714 in the valley of the "Kleine Oker", which once served as an artificial pond to supply the mining mills along the "Schatzkammerzug" with water to power the machines.
We had already reported on the large number of artificially dammed ponds, which are so different in size, for use as backwater to operate the ancient mines in the Harz Mountains in the first article “Pixhaier & Schwarzenbacher Teich am Prahljust Campsite”.
The town of Altenau is quite centrally located in the Upper Harz, only about 10 kilometers from Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the west, Goslar is about 15 km to the north and Osterode am Harz is about 25 km to the south-west.
How well can I remember my childhood, when there was a lot of life and hustle and bustle at and on the Okertalsperre, the water level so high that you could “board” the big round trip on the MS Aquamarin at many points along the lake shore, the at that time it took almost 1.5 hours and could be started from any landing stage.
After driving along the Oker Reservoir we had driven up to the mountain town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, where we wanted to look at the now fully restored Market Church of the Holy Spirit.