Germany 10: Downtime around Quedlinburg and the trip to Wismar

   My hotel in Quedlinburg was in a great location and had an incredible(and free) coffee machine.  The room itself, however, was the smallest room I have ever stayed in, in my life.  Nonetheless, I made it work.  On my first full day, I began by visiting Gustav Adolf Stave Church, the first wooden church of this style that I have ever visited.  It was beautiful both inside and out.  I left a small donation in their donation box.

  Next was the nearby town of Goslar.  It had some small spots of interesting architecture.  Its main square seemed to have a taxidermy festival, as they had multiple vendors with stuffed animals.  I stayed away.

  My plan for the evening was to meet up with a woman from Bumble.  She was about an hour north of Goslar.  She delayed our meeting, so I quickly had a snack and decided to do a quick walkthrough of Wernigerode.  On the way, I stopped at a rest stop.  The rest stop had a parked helicopter, with a nearby medic group working on someone on a stretcher.

  Wernigerode had more personality, in my opinion, than Goslar.  It is also known for its castle up on a hill, but with the combination of photography not being allowed inside, and scaffolding on its side, I skipped it.

  The evening meet up went well.  I met her in the nearest city to her, Brunswick.  She had wanted to bring me to a cafe, but a biker festival in the old town was extremely loud, so she took me on a long walk through the rest of the city.  We stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant, where I ordered Pho, and then we stopped for coffee at the outdoor seating of another restaurant.  We spoke about her travels and life, and I shared stories of my own.

  For the next few days, I felt no particular motivation to head out and explore.  None of the hikes on Alltrails seemed too enthusiastic, and after driving for 3 hours to Quedlinburg, and then about four hours driving around the region on the previous day, I was just tired.  I tried out the hot chocolate at the hotel machine, wary of hot chocolate since the machine in Odense had vile hot chocolate.  It was amazing, but overflowed their large mugs, so I had to catch extra in another glass.

  On the Sunday, with supermarkets closed, I had to walk around town in order to find a restaurant.  The iconic church on the hill had a tremendous amount of scaffolding all over it, so I avoided it.  The town was cute.  I ate again at a Vietnamese restaurant, as they were one of the few that were open and also had outdoor seating.  They didn't have Pho, however.  I tried out three items at the local bakery, and surprisingly liked none of the three.

Just to the right of this view was the Vietnamese restaurant.

  The trip to Wismar, my next stop, was about four hours north.  I stopped at Schwerin Castle.  From afar, it looked beautiful.  I walked inside, but I wasn't interested in seeing the museum.  I wanted to get into the inner courtyard, but they had it blocked off for what looked an event.  Instead, I walked the outer perimeter, taking photos.