Harz Mountains

We left Berlin quite early on Friday for the drive half way across the country. We were heading for the region of the Harz Mountains which used to be half in West Germany and half in East Germany. They were always a popular destination for holiday makes on both sides, and also before and after the separation. First we went to Wernigerode on the east side. Guess what! It had a market place witht the town hall! The thing this town is famous for, however, are its more than 1000 wood framed houses. It really is like something out of a fairy tale.



Next place was Goslar, actually, just outside. So after a little sojourn through the town we went to the Rammelsberger Bergbau Museum, a mining museum. The mine is 1000 years old, but was mostly mined in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now it is just a museum. This is the dressing room with an interesting way of storing the work gear. Find your chain!

There is the shower room - very communal.

We got to go into the mine and they took us 2 miles in by this train. Really great. It was dark and damp and small and SO COOL!!!!!



This is the main shaft.

The lift for the rock carts to go up and down.

So to get at the silver, first they drilled holes,

then blew them up with explosives,

then the machine scooped all the rocks into small carts,

and the small carts run up a rail and dump into the larger carts to go to the surface.

All really cool, but in German, so we didn't under stand much of the hour long talking, but we could see what was going on.