We wish you a happy and healthy new year! 🍀

Yesterday, still feeling a bit chilly, we went to our room after the delicious burgers to write the evening’s blog entry and sort through the many pictures from and with the Brockenbahn.
So nice and cozy in the hotel room. And warm.

The plan was for us to wrap up in three layers of warm clothing so that we would be at the Achtermannshöhe by midnight. This would have required a hike of about an hour. Not really a big deal. But the impression we got of the hiking trails as the altitude increased, combined with the warnings of squalls, made us doubt whether we really wanted to go out and up there again.
No, we didn’t want to. Adventures, yes, but walking over icy paths in the dark was too dicey for us. So we stayed in our room. At around 9:30 p.m., it started to fire outside. We had heard the occasional firecracker over the past few days. This was mainly coming from the youth hostel opposite – probably for the youngest guests who can’t hold out until midnight.
When the clock struck zero, we toasted with a Prosecco and watched the local fireworks. A calm and quiet transition into the year 2025.

This morning we checked out after a nice breakfast. We can absolutely recommend the Hotel Brockenscheideck. The team is friendly and helpful, our room was nice and big and comfortable. The location is a good base for all kinds of leisure activities.
As always, we had a plan for today, which actually worked out one-to-one. Well, almost. We would actually have liked to take part in the candlelit mine tour of the Grubensteiner Stollen, but unfortunately we couldn’t get any more places.
Nevertheless, we wanted to “get into the mountain” somehow and so we visited the Baumannshöhle cave in Rübeland. A really big and beautiful stalactite cave and even the oldest show cave in Germany! A highlight of the cave is the so-called Goethe Hall. It was actually named after Wolfgang von Goethe, who visited this cave several times. There is even a stage here, which is used for various purposes. Imagine, for example, “The Ice Queen” as a theater performance in such a setting. Wow. 🤩😍
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures in the cave for various reasons. However, if you would like to see some impressions or even plan a visit yourself, we recommend the official website of the Baumann Cave.

The tour was over in just under an hour, and we can recommend it without hesitation. The young man conveyed the information about the cave, its inhabitants and stalactites in a good and lively way and responded to the group without getting bored. He also had the opportunity to control the light during the storytelling, which was very well placed anyway. A great experience! There was also a small light show with music in the Goethesaal.

But now home. Right?
The Rappbode dam isn’t that exciting, and I don’t want to cross the TitanRT. Suspension bridges and all that – you know that’s not my thing. 😄🫣 But as long as we’re in the area, we’ll go there anyway to have a look at the bridge from the safety of the ground. Both the suspension bridge and the observation tower were open – albeit without staff, as everything could be done by machine – but with the storm we hadn’t really expected it anyway.
Marco was already here in the summer on one of his moped tours and (of course) also walked across the bridge. That’s why you get somewhat mixed pictures for the overall impression. 🤗
But that was really the end of what we wanted to see and experience, and we headed home.

Conclusion:
Sometimes things turn out differently. First with our London plans, then with our Vitara and finally not everything went as we had planned in the Harz Mountains. But as the saying goes: if life hands you a lemon, make lemonade out of it. Our “vacation lemonade” tasted fantastic and we have some great memories to take home with us. Maybe we’ll come back when the temperatures are warmer. There’s still a lot to discover here!