Goslar: all fairytale, no twee

Easter Sunday in Goslar, at the foot of the Harz mountains in Germany, with a carillon in the town square at noon and a snowfall I never knew existed outside of musical theater: a fairytale village, but real. Realness is what sets Goslar apart. We’ve visited charming half-timber villages before, and enjoyed them, but they often take their quaintness and pimp it out to a nauseating level. Half-timber and cobblestones are lovely. Half-timber and cobblestone streets stuffed with ye olde gift shoppes on every corner and people dressed as fashionable peasants reenacting a suspiciously sanitized past makes me long for graffiti and piss-smelling alleys.

The town of Goslar is a (wait for it now, you’ll never, ever guess) UNESCO World Heritage Sight. It’s quite well preserved and prosperous-feeling. Most of the town’s buildings are partially covered with intricately arranged slate and beautifully carved and painted wood. You could spend days just wandering about taking in the details: even the locks of doors were interesting. And the (literal) icing on the cake: during our entire stay giant fluffy straight-out-of-Hollywood snowflakes drifted down. It was impossibly picturesque.

Goslar’s superstar is it’s main church, St. Cosmas and Damian. The church is packed with wonderful art, including 13th century stained glass, a hilariously carved wood Baroque altar, and a Renaissance era bronze baptismal font. We especially appreciated the contemporary stained glass windows by Johannes Schreiter. His work has an abstract expressionist vibe, with vibrant colors and a linear quality that resembled stylized cracks in the glass. My favorite of his works incorporated remnants of medieval stained glass into the designs. I love it when contemporary art is mixed with art from older eras, and kudos to the church for choosing to work with Mr. Schreiter.

Go, go, go to gorgeous Goslar. I recommend spending at least two nights since there’s so much to see. And if you visit in winter, I hope you can experience the musical theater snow. Believe me, it’s worth the wet feet.

How we got to Goslar: train from Quedlinburg.

Where we slept: Gastehaus Engelcke. Price: €60 for a double. Recommended: yes.