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 R\u00fcbeland 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!<\/p>\n
Are there still tickets available?<\/strong> A stormy welcome<\/strong> We start off comfortably but not too slowly. I walk forward with my camera to the locomotive and take a few nice shots in \u201cAnna Karenina\u201d style \ud83d\ude42 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 R\u00fcbeland 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\u2019t be a problem. But here it\u2019s also cold and damp, and there\u2019s only one caf\u00e9 open. Most of the passengers rush straight toward it. But we\u2019ve 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\u2019s not worth staying long. We continue down the street, pass the \u201cBodeperle\u201d 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.<\/p>\n In the locomotive park of the \u201cMountain Queen\u201d Bad coffee in the \u201cTannengrund\u201d<\/strong> Off to the Christmas market<\/strong>
\nWhat 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\u2019s 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\u2014we\u2019re off to Blankenburg.<\/p>\n
\nWhen we arrive in Blankenburg, we are greeted\u2014quite literally\u2014by 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 R\u00fcbeland train is already ready for departure at the platform, so we secure good window seats right away. When boarding, I\u2019m a bit surprised. I had imagined a historic interior with wooden benches. In reality, it is the interior of a former regional train\u2014the locomotive is the only historic part. But no matter, we\u2019re 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\u2019re quickly enveloped in a massive cloud of steam so that we are literally standing in fog.<\/p>\n
\nWe also look around a bit in the shed of the \u201cMountain Queen\u201d\u2014that\u2019s 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 H\u00fcttenrode directly past the \u201cBlue Lake,\u201d then on an elevated railway embankment next to the F27, and finally through the Bismarck Tunnel to the \u201cOld Station.\u201d We look around the small \u201cexhibition\u201d and learn that Wilhelm Schmidt was an important pioneer in the field of superheated and high-pressure steam technology. Since the shed isn\u2019t heated, the cold slowly creeps into our bones. Now we really want to head to the caf\u00e9\u2014maybe we\u2019ll still find a seat and a hot drink.<\/p>\n
\nSo 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 \u20ac10 note\u2014five euros of which are tip. He leaves the glass half full and walks out. We look at each other, shrug, and order two caf\u00e9 cr\u00e8mes. 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\u2019t help but laugh, also about the 1970s d\u00e9cor. Somehow we make it through the two hours in R\u00fcbeland and slowly stroll back to the Nikolaus Express.<\/p>\n
\nThe return trip goes just like the outbound one, and again we arrive at the Blankenburg station right on time. Somehow, I\u2019m 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\u2014the Sternthaler Christmas Market had just opened yesterday. Since the mulled-wine stand run by the Lions Club is the only one that doesn\u2019t serve in paper cups, we buy our second hot drink of the day there\u2014and it even tastes good! After this lovely end to the day, we head home feeling happy.<\/p>\n