Apr.30 Sunday Nuremberg

We were greeted with sunny skies this morning!   Yay!

 We checked out and dragged our suitcases and backpacks to the train station.

Caught the 10:59 to Nuremberg for a 30-minute ride.

The Nuremberg rail station is impressive!!  This pic was taken later in the day when the lighting was better.

This is what we saw when leaving the train station :

We were on the edge of the (old)town walls and walked a block to an entry point.

After leaving our luggage with the front desk we took off for a discovery walk and lunch.    Just like Bamberg we were amazed at how many sights we were able to squeeze in over the next three hours!

Not far from our hotel we saw .. St.Elizabeth Church, a Roman Catholic church which had been reconstructed in 1802.    It is dedicated to Elizabeth of Hungary.  We entered and caught the last 10-minutes of the service and enjoyed the organ postlude.

It had a simple but very beautiful interior.

We continued into the old town and one of the many gates.

This was a special May Day weekend .. Monday is a public holiday.   It is not only an ancient festival to welcome the spring weather and drive away evil spirits but also an occasion to campaign for and celebrate workers rights.   And, boy were people out and about enjoying the weather.   Remember Coburg's glorious central market square?   Nuremberg has many many of these squares or 'platz's!

At the end of one of these platz's is the church of St.Lorenz (Lawrence), a medieval church mostly completed by 1477!  It was damaged by bombing in WWII and restored.   We also took some inside photos (of course!)

We could've spent a lot more time in here .. but we knew we had to continue to discover the area.    So many neat sights awaited us!    On the way down the hill to see the next square, we got a glimpse of the castle we'll visit tomorrow :

This is the Hospital of The Holy Spirit, built in 1339 to care for ill, elderly and poor people, built partially over the Pegnitz river.   

We arrived at the Haupt-Markt, a fabulous square.   This church anchors one side of the square.   This is brick gothic architecture, built between 1352-62.   We didn't go inside this one, saving it maybe for tomorrow.

They were shooting a dance video in the square.   And on the north side of the square was the .. Beautiful Fountain :

We started back to find our hotel and found a few more sights.

We found another St.Jakob Church, another on the pilgrim road to Santiago.   We actually saw a pilgrim hiker with hiking stick and backpack stamping his pilgrimage passport book inside.

Here's the pilgrimage map of churches and the stamp station ..

We may not be as lucky with the weather tomorrow as we were today.   But, that never stops Oregonians from discovering more interesting sights, does it?

Hopefully we'll get a chance to sleep in a little and do some wash later.

Take care,    Jan & Joe

Apr.29 Saturday Coburg day-trip

After breakfast we were ready for another discovery day.  Hiked to the train station again to catch the 9:22 RE4924 to Coburg.

A short 39-min. ride north to Coburg with stops at .. Sonneberg, Breitengussbach, Bad Staffelstein, Lichtenfels, and Ebersdorf.  We saw an interesting sight on the hill to the left, Banz Abbey, a former benedictine monastery started in 1575 and consecrated in 1719.

I was really looking forward to visiting Coburg.   It has some interesting history.  Leaving the train station we walked along a neat boulevard that had some neat  historical architecture.

We had looked at the Google map in our hotel room the night before to get a 'lay of the land' idea as to how the town was laid out and where the points of interest were.  We've done this all along our trip.   It gives us a sense of discovery and surprise.  We saw an old lady walking and pulling a cart with bags and decided she was going to the Market Square.   We followed.   And .. voila!

A beautiful square surrounded with colorful buildings.   And .. our first market day!

And smack dab in the middle of the square, a statue of Prince Albert.   More on him later.

We walked to the next large square that housed the .. Ehrenburg Palace.    On the way it started to rain, and rain, and start raining sideways!    This happened us two years ago at another palace, Versailles in Paris!!   We decided it was a good time to go on an inside palace tour!   It was the residence of the Coburg dukes.  Prince Albert spent much of his childhood here.   Alas, we could not take photos.  But the internet provided some to give you an idea of the luxuriousness of the rooms.

Here's the .. hall of giants :

The palace had its own wildly ornate chapel !

After the tour we stepped outside to get an idea of the size of this complex.

The rain had stopped so we started walking up the expansive park to see if we could get a view of Coburg's impressive fortress, the Veste Coburg.    Joe's knees would not allow a hike of 1.8km and elevation to visit this fortress built in the 13th century.    Here's a rather limited look at it.

We were getting hungry so we headed back to the market square to find a cozy restaurant to eat and rest.    We heard a band playing and we decided to first enjoy the music with hundreds of others.

What a fun time.   They played many tunes and pleased the crowd.   Many of the musicians were dressed in cultural German garb.     On to lunch at the Goldenes Kreuz which is in a building built in the 13th century.

Matt, I ordered beer from their barrel, Kreuztrunk, an amber colored house beer, which was spicy with a slightly smoky taste.    And, to keep in the local spirit, I ordered the Coburger bratwurst with sauerkraut and a couple of mustards.

Oh yeah, I promised you some historical stuff.   The fortress, the 'Veste', served as a refuge for Martin Luther during one of the periods where he needed protection from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.   During the six months he spent at the Veste he worked on his German translation of the Bible.

Now about .. Prince Albert.   He was born in 1819, the 2nd son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs.  He married his first cousin, Queen Victoria of England, in 1840, and became her consort.   They had nine kids together.   He died young in 1861.   You should read up on Albert .. he was an interesting man and supported many causes and advanced scientific discoveries, and helped make the Great Exposition of 1851 a success!

It was time to get some gelato and head back to the train station to catch the 16:48 back to Bamberg.    We were dragging a bit.   Day-7 of our wild and activity-filled journey!   We were delighted to see that we(Jan) chose the high-speed direct train.

Bamberg-Schweinfurt-Coburg stops were excellent, meaningful, and awesome!  Tomorrow, Sunday, we train to Nuremberg for a couple of nights before we embark on our river cruise with Ama Waterways on Tuesday.

See you from Nuremberg!

Take care.     Jan & Joe

Apr.28 Friday Schweinfurt - day trip

60-years ago ! ..  Joe and his family lived here for 5-years.   Dad was in the Army and brought us along.   Let's back up ..

After WWII, Germany was split up into four occupation zones, Great Britain in the northwest, France in the southwest, the U.S. in the south, and U.S.S.R. in the east.  The U.S. established 47 major military bases!

So, today, we travel via train from Bamberg to Schweinfurt.  It's a very wet first part of the day!    1st thing, though, we need to start with a hearty breakfast!

OK, let's hike back to the train station ..

Over the Main River we walk ..

After a short 30+ min. ride to Schweinfurt, we encounter even heavier rain.   We head West from the train station until we cross John F. Kennedy Ring and follow it to where the former family housing area used to be located.

Some more background ... when we arrived here in 1959, we were put on a waiting list for housing.   Until a spot was available we were housed in a small village out in the boondocks, very close to the U.S.S.R. sector (East Germany).   An army staff sedan had to come and get us kids to take us to school every day.    At night we could here tanks patrolling the border fence, ... rumble rumble rumble.   This was at the height of the Cold War.   As kids we thought it was very cool.

Jan found an old sign from 2010 that showed our housing area.

The housing area is to the left, the Army barracks is Ledward (Kaserne).   The school we attended is the red in the upper left hand corner.    Alas, most of this has been torn down, bricks and steel re-purposed, but memories still abound!   Here's some signage that still shows American names ..

This area that is now under reconstruction, building new apartment buildings, was once home to families of American soldiers, from 1953-2014.

They have kept the old American name and have honored former famous area people by renaming the streets after them.   Here are a few pictures of the construction now in progress.

Here I am .. running in place in front of our former large playground area :

More background .. prior to- and during- WWII, Schweinfurt produced most of Nazi Germany's ball bearings, and its factories became a target of Allied strategic bombing to cripple tank and aircraft production.   Schweinfurt was bombed 22 times by a total of 2,285 aircraft.   I mention this because during my Boy Scout days we trekked along the hills of anti-aircraft bunkers exploring for artifacts.

We crossed the busy street (strasse) and walked to the old army barracks.

These barracks are now being repurposed as an Applied Sciences University.

We hiked back to the Schweinfurt train station and hopped on the 2:42.

By the time we arrived in Bamberg, the rain had finally quit.   We walked back to the hotel and took a short break ... Joe let his knees have a rest.   We went out again to walk and discover new old-town areas and look for a dinner restaurant, stopping occasionally to admire some of the old architecture.

We found an interesting restaurant that offered an amazing variety of burgers and different fries and other food combinations.  Matt-  here's the Rauchbier I tried :

It was excellent!   Jan really liked her lemon ice tea!    Here's our food :

We walked miles and miles!       I think it was much easier when I was 12 !!  

It was a blast to the past!   5-years of my formative time in which I developed a photography hobby, started and finished an electrical correspondence course, and developed a strong interest in European history.

I thank Jan for her patience and willingness for me to take one of our vacation days to reconnect with an important part of my past.   I think my sisters and brother will agree that our time in Schweinfurt was very special.

Tomorrow .. we train to Coburg for another day trip.   I'll let you know how it played an important role in Martin Luther's and England's Queen Victoria's lives.

Take care.