Day 45 (June 17) Surprised by Joy in Coburg

Using the title from a CS Lewis book about his new found faith, we found ourselves surprised by joy in visiting Coburg.  First, our gas shortage was solved by finding a gas station there.  It had been surprising the previous day to not see any public gas stations in so many little villages.  We were down to 15 miles of range or about a 1/2 gallon of fuel.

Coburg is a scant 3 miles from our hotel, but never having been there, it took us a while to find a motorcycle parking spot, but persistence paid off when we found one right in the center of what we were looking to visit.  We then easily found the tourist information office and received a helpful city map with a self guided walking tour route and descriptions all done in English.  So we headed off on the tour.  The first stop at the old city hall was among the most stunning we have seen in our travels.  Schloss Ehrenburg was on the tour and it was also one of the castles we needed for our castle tour.  St. Moritz church (with its ornate alabaster carved altarpiece but otherwise plain in decor) was another worthy stop.  At the conclusion of the tour, we found the city's famous bratwurst sandwich in the town square and some gingerbread type cookies and a panini at another restaurant to round out lunch.

                                      Old City Hall

We caught the little train (cutely nicknamed the Gecko-Bahn) up to the fortress castle, Veste Coburg.  This is one huge defensive castle and highlights of our visit included a huge knife collection, a huge antique hunting rifle  exhibition, 2 rooms in which Martin Luther lived after he was excommunicated by the pope, lots of paintings and sculptures, a cool movie down in a dungeon room about Martin Luther, and a carriage collection. The audio guide was a bit frustrating to use, but in the end it helped to have it for the castle tour.  We spent most of the afternoon there and just before 5pm caught the next to last train back down the hill.  We found a little Döner shop near our motorcycle for a light dinner.  As I was gearing up to ride back to the hotel, Angela wandered across the street to see what was playing at the Landestheatre.  It was Barry Manilow's Cococabana musical.  Tickets were only 18€ each, so we decided to gafe a night out at the theatre.  Surprised by joy once again!

The performance was wonderful with most of the speaking parts in German, but most of the songs were in English.  We thoroughly enjoyed the show and rode back to the Panorama Hotel in the dark.

Tomorrow's plan is to visit Rödenthal with a special visit to the Hummel figurine factory as well as a castle or two.