I first visited Wernigerode not long after the East German border opened up in the 90s, and promised myself a stay at the Weisse Hirsch when I came back as it had such a good rating and looked beautiful. I walked here from the train station and entered the front door from the market square (like the featured photo), expecting to see the reception desk. It's gone. There is a storage space there for the outdoor seating instead. I found that the reception desk is now at the back of the hotel off a small side street, which is strange. The reception staff were friendly at first but when they realized I was not German, their attitude changed completely. I speak pretty good German and have stayed all over the country many times, but they pretended to struggle to understand me. They bought out a girl who said she spoke English but she was only at Kindergarten level. It was hot weather and I asked if they had a cooling fan I could use in my room, and she thought I wanted to put football fans in my room......oh dear. I had to draw a picture to make her understand. And they didn't have any fans. Good old German small town discrimination is alive and well here. They gave me a visitors book of discount coupons to use, which the tourist office in the Rathaus confirmed later should be free. The front desk staff charged me 4 Euros for them, even when I said I was there to see friends, not be a tourist. I reported this to the tourist office. The room I booked was clean, nice and large. It had weird features - the first switch by the door is usually for the lights but here it was a master power switch that shut everything off. The lights were elsewhere. There was a speaker in the ceiling of the bathroom that made a loud buzzing sound every 180 seconds at night that nobody could fix. The built in closets had very bright automatic lights on the outside which serve no purpose, and they would come on at random which made it feel like I was sleeping in a disco. Out in the corridors with no external windows they have motion detected lights to save energy, but they only work some of the time so the corridors were a bit of a challenge if the lights weren't working. They also smelled bad. Breakfast the next day was very good and the serving staff were very friendly and helpful. At least they still have a first class restaurant here. Back at the front desk I asked them for help making a telephone call from my room - was there a prefix to dial first? - to my friends in the town to let them know I had arrived. ”We can't help with that. You must do it yourself” they said. Oh well, at least the location is terrific and I was able to get around to see the lovely old town and find good places to eat in the same street. When I checked out, the front desk staff remained stiff and unhelpful. They checked out a German couple at the same time, and were asking them if they needed onward directions and other things, then a warm goodbye. They didn't even say goodbye to me. Ausl
Bagus
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