On the Rübeland Railway: Traveling with the Nikolaus Express
Niklausi is at the door, a special day in the Christmas season that deserves a special event. But what lovely thing should we do on this day? I imagine there must be some interesting offers in the Harz. A corresponding internet search, however, is initially disappointing. To my surprise, the number of events is quite limited, and most of them are aimed at children. Do adults not celebrate anymore? Eventually I do find something. An offer from the Rübeland Railway catches my attention: on December 6th there is a special steam train ride with the so-called Nikolaus Express. That sounds tempting and like a cozy day out. Just the thing for this dreary early-winter weather!
Are there still tickets available?
What concerns me a bit is the fact that tickets can only be purchased on the day of the event from noon onwards. Since we have more than an hour’s drive, it would be really annoying if they were sold out by the time we arrive. On top of that, storm gusts are forecast in Blankenburg today. Will the train even run under these conditions? We want to know for sure and call the station in Blankenburg. The friendly gentleman on the phone assures us that the train will definitely run and is happy to reserve two tickets for us. Yay! The plan is working out—we’re off to Blankenburg.
A stormy welcome
When we arrive in Blankenburg, we are greeted—quite literally—by a storm. A very stiff breeze is blowing, and it feels like 3 degrees. We first pick up our tickets and intend to stretch our legs a bit. But the wind is so strong and so cold that we quickly flee back into the station building. My eye immediately catches the special stamp station in the station hall. However, all special stamp spots in my booklet are already filled, so I skip it this time. The Rübeland train is already ready for departure at the platform, so we secure good window seats right away. When boarding, I’m a bit surprised. I had imagined a historic interior with wooden benches. In reality, it is the interior of a former regional train—the locomotive is the only historic part. But no matter, we’re sitting in the compartment right in front of the engine and thus have a good view of the locomotive. When we depart punctually at 1:15 p.m., we’re quickly enveloped in a massive cloud of steam so that we are literally standing in fog.
We start off comfortably but not too slowly. I walk forward with my camera to the locomotive and take a few nice shots in “Anna Karenina” style 🙂 When I return to the compartment, I see that Santa Claus has arrived and is handing out small gifts to the children. After about 15 minutes, we stop because the locomotive needs to switch ends so it can push us into Rübeland from behind. We arrive there punctually at 1:55 p.m. Now we have two hours of free time. Well, in nice or warm weather, that wouldn’t be a problem. But here it’s also cold and damp, and there’s only one café open. Most of the passengers rush straight toward it. But we’ve seen a sign saying that the red wooden church of the town is open today, so we decide to visit that first. The interior is rather plain, and it’s not worth staying long. We continue down the street, pass the “Bodeperle” outdoor pool, and finally reach the locomotive park. Here stand two steam locomotives. The staff from our train has settled down with coffee and stollen.
In the locomotive park of the “Mountain Queen”
We also look around a bit in the shed of the “Mountain Queen”—that’s the name of our steam locomotive. We are in the historic locomotive shed of the HBE, the Halberstadt-Blankenburg Railway. It was built in 1935 as an extension to the original building from 1885. The original route led from Hüttenrode directly past the “Blue Lake,” then on an elevated railway embankment next to the F27, and finally through the Bismarck Tunnel to the “Old Station.” We look around the small “exhibition” and learn that Wilhelm Schmidt was an important pioneer in the field of superheated and high-pressure steam technology. Since the shed isn’t heated, the cold slowly creeps into our bones. Now we really want to head to the café—maybe we’ll still find a seat and a hot drink.
Bad coffee in the “Tannengrund”
So we enter the Tannengrund inn and look around for a place. Well, it looks a bit bleak. The only option is to join a young man sitting alone at a table. Frank approaches him, and we sit down. The young man, who clearly does not speak German, has a half-full glass of beer in front of him and is speaking in a foreign language into his phone. When we order, he pays for his drink with a €10 note—five euros of which are tip. He leaves the glass half full and walks out. We look at each other, shrug, and order two café crèmes. When the hot drink arrives, we take a first sip to warm up and promptly grimace. The brew tastes so terribly bitter, like old filter coffee, that we can barely choke down the rest. Still, we can’t help but laugh, also about the 1970s décor. Somehow we make it through the two hours in Rübeland and slowly stroll back to the Nikolaus Express.
Off to the Christmas market
The return trip goes just like the outbound one, and again we arrive at the Blankenburg station right on time. Somehow, I’m still in the mood for a cup of mulled wine. Since I prefer the small but charming Christmas markets, I check whether Blankenburg has anything to offer. And indeed, in the old town there are a few stalls in front of the town hall. Perfect timing—the Sternthaler Christmas Market had just opened yesterday. Since the mulled-wine stand run by the Lions Club is the only one that doesn’t serve in paper cups, we buy our second hot drink of the day there—and it even tastes good! After this lovely end to the day, we head home feeling happy.
