By rail and bike through the Selke Valley

Short description

A beautiful circular tour through the romantic Selke Valley, starting with a ride on the Selke Valley Railway and then leading along the Harz mountains for 28 kilometers.

Description

On this tour, we drive through the romantic Selke Valley with its original landscape, characterized by rugged cliffs, blooming meadows, picturesque ponds, and extensive beech and oak forests.

Not only railway enthusiasts will be thrilled by the start of this tour. With the Selke Valley Railway, we travel from Gernrode station to Mägdesprung. This section of the route is the origin of the Harz narrow-gauge railways, to which the Selke Valley Railway belongs. The Gernrode - Mägdesprung line was opened on August 7, 1887.

Arriving in Mägdesprung, we get on our bikes and cycle towards Selkemühle. We continue on the Selke Valley Trail passing by Talmühle and Falkenstein Castle towards Meisdorf. From here, we use the EuroVelo R1 cycle route. We follow it to Ballenstedt, to Ballenstedt Castle with the monastery church and the burial site of Albrecht the Bear. Ballenstedt is considered the cradle of Anhalt, as the Anhalt Castle, built by the Ballenstedt Counts in the Selke Valley, gave the princely house its name.

If we continue following the R1, we reach Gernrode. Here, St. Cyriakus Gernrode Collegiate Church awaits our visit. It dates back to the Ottonian period with a replica of the Holy Sepulchre.

Route description

After the approximately half-hour ride on the Selke Valley Railway from Gernrode to Mägdesprung, we get on our bikes. At Mägdesprung station, we cross the B185 to enter the K2363. On the lightly trafficked district road, we ride about 7 kilometers to Selkemühle. From here, we ride about 8 kilometers on the wide hiking trail Selke Valley Trail past Talmühle and the Gasthof zum Falken until we reach the L230. We then continue cycling on the country road to Schlosshotel Meisdorf. From here, we follow the EuroVelo R1 cycle route and its signs. We follow the R1 for about 3 kilometers to Opperode and another 3 kilometers to Ballenstedt. The R1 leads us for 3 kilometers through Ballenstedt and the castle park. We cross the B185 and cycle 4 kilometers further on the R1 along the Harz mountains to Osterteich Gernrode. From Osterteich, we follow the R1 to the L242 and after one kilometer on the country road, we reach Gernrode station in the town center.

Further information

Restaurants are available in Mägdesprung, Meisdorf, Ballenstedt, and Gernrode.

Travel information

Gernrode can be reached via a well-developed network of highways and federal roads:

The nearest highways are the A 395 (Braunschweig - Bad Harzburg) and the A 2 (Dortmund - Hannover - Berlin) in the north, the A 7 (Munich - Kassel - Hannover - Hamburg) in the west, the A 4 (Fulda - Erfurt - Dresden) in the south, and the A 14 (Halle/Leipzig - Magdeburg) in the east.

The so-called Nordharzautobahn (B6) can now be driven continuously from the Vienenburger Dreieck of the Lower Saxony A395 via Ilsenburg, Wernigerode, and Blankenburg to Quedlinburg, then towards Gernrode.

Parking information

Free parking spaces are available at Gernrode station.