May 30th & 31st
After Bayreuth we headed to Coburg, which is probably half way between Bayreuth and Bamberg. My parents had just been there and remarked how beautiful the city and castle were. Paul and I got off the train about 8:00 p.m. it was getting dark, and we had no map of the city. Our goal was to find a cheap place to stay. We headed toward the city central, looking for any sign of hotel or someone to ask. If we didn't find anything we had one hour before the last train left back to Bamberg. We asked some people on the street and they directed us to a place, but when we asked how much a room was it was beyond our budget. Continuing further we ran into a couple of Bavarian police officers. Paul thought to ask them. All of a sudden they were calling up the station, someone was looking online, got a price, called the place, and then they drove us in their squad car to the hotel. Was maybe a block and a half, but still, pretty amazing. Danke to those helpful officers! So, now we went into the hotel, and she mentioned that she had a smaller room that she could rent us for the night for even less. We'll take it!!! This hotel was also a Hofbrauhaus so we were set. We had a place, we had food, and of course delicious Bavarian BEER! Catching the last of the asparagus season, we enjoyed a fantastic creamy asparagus soup, and a couple of brats. Played some cards with crazy German cards. It was great. Then to cap our lovely evening we went for a quick stroll and came upon the Ehrnburg Palace only a block away. Coburg is where the English Royal family is from. So beautiful and it's so fun to see things at night all lit up.
Next day we packed up, showered and headed in to see the town. Got a kaffee and a pastry and we set off to see the castle on top of the hill. We headed through a large park with some of the biggest trees Paul and I have ever seen. Not quite Red woods, but many of them were well over 400+ years. We got our work out in hiking up the hill, steps, steps and more steps. We made it in through the walls, got to the edge and enjoyed our breakfast. We paid the fee to see the inside of the castle since we had not been inside any of the other forts and castles we saw. It was pretty amazing. Martin Luther spent some time there. A famous room is the hunting room, which was all wood, and within the wood, wood inlay with scenes, and designs. It is truly remarkable. The castle also has one of the largest collections of medieval weapons. And then some very unique modes of transportation. Everything was so decorative while still serving a function. After the castle we enjoyed a beer at the biergarden at the castle overlooking the town, and then headed back down. We walked around town, and of course were ready for lunch. We found a pizza place that at that point I was speaking a weird combo of Italian and broken German. Regardless it worked, and boy that pizza tasted so good....we ordered another just like it. Well that's the end of our German, or should I say Bavarian tour. We had a great time and we hope to be back soon! Thanks to my brother, my parents, Paul's parents who made this trip possible for us.
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| how do they do that? It's all wood! |
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| Jagdzimmer 1632 |
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| Painting of Martin Luther |
