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.
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
Oh, we want some bratwurst now! Make sure you try some nuremburgers and take a tour at Kongresshalle/Documentation Center - sobering but super well done.
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