Wernigerode

Wernigerode needs 1 day: Wernigerode Castle, on a hill with views of the Harz mountains, and the Marktplatz with Germany's most photographed half-timbered town hall, on the same walk. May-September has the best weather for the Harzquerbahn steam train, which climbs to the Brocken peak from the town. It's cheap by German standards. Nicknamed «the town of colors» for its brightly painted façades, it's the classic gateway to the Harz mountains and the witch legends Goethe immortalized in «Faust», set on the nearby Brocken.