24-Hour Room Service: Hotel Kaiserworth, Goslar, Germany

Goslar, on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains, is the sort of town where you expect fairy stories to come true. Its web of narrow pedestrian-only streets is bisected by a tumbling mill-stream, while the cobbled medieval marketplace is full of old gents in breeches striding purposefully towards ivy-clad bars. Its position means the air is particularly invigorating.

Goslar, on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains, is the sort of town where you expect fairy stories to come true. Its web of narrow pedestrian-only streets is bisected by a tumbling mill-stream, while the cobbled medieval marketplace is full of old gents in breeches striding purposefully towards ivy-clad bars. Its position means the air is particularly invigorating.

The Kaiserworth is the most flamboyant building in a town that is much overlooked by British travellers. Built by a wealthy merchant in 1600 to upstage the town hall, it is a fantasia of statue-encrusted salmon-pink walls topped by slate turrets shaped like magicians' hats. It looks like the sort of place Rapunzel would go on holiday to let her hair down.

Its restaurant, the Worth, has a painted, vaulted ceiling and stays open all day; on market days (Tuesdays and Fridays) it fills with country ladies eating cake. The cellar bar opens every evening, but drinkers unused to the strength of German pilsener should not get too close to the bar's ancient well.

Location, location, location

The Kaiserworth is at Markt 3, 38640 Goslar (00 49 5321 7090, www.kaiserworth.de) and dominates the square.

Transport: This is basically a pedestrian town and the immediate environment of the Kaiserworth is not really accessible by car, although the hotel does have 15 spaces in an adjacent street.

Time to international airport: Hannover airport is 75 minutes northwest by car, or one and a half hours by train (change at Hannover on to the airport S-bahn).

Are you lying comfortably?

Depending on your preference, you can choose between modern decor or traditional heavy oak.

Many of the rooms have four-posters, and the hotel even has what it calls its English room – with Laura Ashley furnishings and watercolours of British landscapes.

If you are prepared to spend a bit more and book well in advance, you might be able to secure one of the honeymooners' rooms. It's furnished with huge statues, and you can sit in the glass-windowed turrets and compose love poetry or watch proceedings in the marketplace down below.

Freebies: The usual packaged toiletries.

Keeping in touch: All rooms have phones and some have sockets for modems.

The bottom line

B&B starts from DM109 (£35) for a single out the back, rising to DM329 (£105) for a double overlooking the market. The Kaiserworth also does a special package with two nights' accommodation, a city tour, a menu of the day in the Worth restaurant and a serving of coffee and cake for DM249 (£80) per person.

I'm not paying that: Then try the Zum Breiten Tor (Breite Str. 53, 00 49 5321 20202), by the gate to the old town. A friendly family run hotel, it has singles for DM60 (£19) and doubles for DM120 (£38).