The Tempest

After the hustle and bustle of Berlin we decided to head to the hills in the form of the Harz mountains, in the centre of Germany. We set up camp outside a little town called Goslar which was extremely pretty and spent the rest of the day hiding out from the rain and fantasizing about how the next day we would wake to chirping birds, sunshine and a hike in the mountains.

Needless to say we didn't quite realize our dreams the following day. After a drive to the head of a trail where we couldn't see for fog we decided to explore the town of Goslar in its fullness rather than be rescued from a hilltop, wet and disoriented.

So we returned to town, kicked about the town hall, palace, cafes and shoe shops (Eva says goodbye to the pair of Skechers she has had since leaving home only to replace them with another pair) and had a nice afternoon only to have to return to our rather damp tent. There followed a night of torrential rain where we could hear the river we were camped next to rise. In the morning packing up was a damp and muddy chore and when we ducked into the town we saw that the streams had almost reached their limits.

All this rain had dampened our spirits so to speak so we headed to the town of Paderborn halfway between the Harz mountain and Munster (more on Munster later) and checked into a hotel for the night. Luxury and dryness at last!

One cool thing about the Harz mountains, other than the very pretty towns was that they have a huge pagan festival every year and it is a major drawcard to the area. Every streetsign is adorned with witches on broomsticks and every souvenir store sells dozens of types of witch doll. Quite funky really.

Almost forgot to mention, all of you wonderful people keeping Adam in touch with the Grand final as we sat fearing the flood at 6:30 in the morning. What we (or at least Adam) would have given to be in Australia at that moment.

Photos: What to do, what to do? When the rain sets in Yahtzee is the only answer, All the view we were going to get in the mountains, A pretty Harz town square.