The River Bode

A day of two halves. We took the train to the next stop to visit the Teufelsmauer (see extra). The weather turned out rather nice in spite  of dire warnings. Legend has it that the devil decided to split up the world, one half for the devil and the other half for god. The devil then started to build a wall. God decided that the devil went to far and stopped this early wall building effort. It is a geological feature that comes from the layers being dipped vertically by the buildup of the Harz Mountains. A layer of extremely hard sandstone withstood erosion better than the surrounding layers and a wall was left over. We walked along a little while to the next place Thale, where took a lift up to the Rosstrappe, another legendary place with fantastic view (main blip) of the River Bode coming down from the mountain. Legend has it that a princess was chased by a knight who wanted to marry her against her will. The princess' horse jumped the chasm and left a foot print (hence the name Rosstrappe). She lost her crown into the river. The knight fell into it as well and has to guard the crown as a black dog. Opposite the Rosstrappe on the other side of the gorge is where the witches meet for their annual dance. 

I really would like to go back there for a hiking holiday. You can see the zigzag path going down to the river.

As a bonus I also found a nice oil beetle (further extra). Can't wait to go proper bug hunting again.

A great day out. As always more pictures on flickr.