Goslar Old Town

Goslar grew rich on the ore of the Rammelsberg, the hill above it, worked for something close to a thousand years before the last shift in 1988. That money paid for the slate hung houses and carved timber frames that still line the lanes, and for the Kaiserpfalz, a Romanesque imperial palace with a hall the size of a barn, heavily restored in the nineteenth century and painted inside to that period's taste. The mine itself is open to visitors, entered on a small train through galleries where medieval waterwheels still turn. Above it spreads the Upper Harz water system, a landscape of ponds and ditches dug to power the workings.

What you actually see

• The Rammelsberg mine - underground galleries with medieval waterwheels, entered by narrow gauge train.
• The Kaiserpfalz - a Romanesque imperial hall with nineteenth century murals covering its walls.
• The market square - a glockenspiel of mining figures and the guild houses around it.
• The timber lanes - slate clad and carved facades running back towards the wall and the mill stream.

When to go

May to October gives the best of the surrounding Harz walking and full mine tours. December turns the market square into one of the better small Christmas markets, with a lit forest of spruce beside it. Underground tours run to a timetable and fill up in school holidays, so book on arrival if not earlier.

Honest expectations

The mine stays cold and damp at around ten degrees whatever the season, and parts of the route involve ducking and stairs. The Kaiserpfalz interior divides opinion sharply, since it is largely a nineteenth century invention. Goslar fills with coach groups in the middle of the day and empties by evening, when little stays open.

Nearby

The Harz narrow gauge steam lines, the crags of the Oker valley, and the Brocken plateau.