Coburg, Germany

I know that we are going to Sicily in a couple of days, but the weather has been too beautiful to just sit indoors all day.  So we decided that we needed to hike around a castle for the afternoon.  I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but I have a bit of an obsession with the British royal family.  (Historically, not for any other reason).  The current British royal family descends from (as you all probably know), Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  Prince Albert was from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  He was born at the nearby Schloss Rosenau, which I want to go back and see but it's a mostly-indoors-kinda-place and we wanted to spend some time outside today.  So instead, we visited the Veste Coburg today, which is one of Germany's largest castles by volume.

Parking wasn't very easy to find. It's not RIGHT at the castle, but we eventually found it (driving up some questionable roads which we thought might be someone's driveway!)  It's not a bad walk up to the castle after you park.  Parking isn't free, but only costs a few Euros.  There's a machine where you put in the money and it spits out a ticket that you put on your dashboard.

I'm not sure what they were pointing at but they sure looked cute doing it!  The weather was mild for the first of April!

Coburg Castle has been around since the 10th century, and has since grown to one of the largest castles in Germany.  It's best known for being in the hands of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha duchy, who's famous son Prince Albert was married to Queen Victoria of England.  The Saxon duchy was split among three sons of John Frederick I way back in 1554.  Over the years, the Saxon duchy continued to divide, merge and omit. With the 1825 extinction of the oldest of the Saxon duchy lines (the Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg line) there was yet another substantial rearrangement.  The last duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Ernest III was now named the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a newly formed Duchy.  He renamed himself Ernest I.  His son Albert went on to marry Queen Victoria, making him the great-great-great grandfather of the current Queen Elizabeth.

Even though it was a beautiful day, the castle wasn't very packed. If I didn't have an interest in the British royal family, I might not have known to come here!  It was an absolutely beautiful castle, and fun to explore!

I've been noticing more and more oddly shaped vines on fortresses and castles lately! 

I don't know why this tree struck me as funny!  It's really tall!  But it's alone in that aspect!

Naturally, we had to stop for some lunch before we checked out the castle.  We ate at the castle, and the food and beer were good!  In fact, the currywurst was excellent! I can't say that for all places, but it was definitely good here!  Since Easter is only a few weeks away, they already had the place decorated with eggs.

Thank goodness he has long arms! It always makes for a good selfie of us!

Here we go walking into the castle!  Looks pretty dangerous!

I'm not even sure you can call this half timber.  It's like, "mostly timber."

Of all of the amazing things you can find at a castle, my kids will find the silliest things exciting!  They LOVED this water well. Depth of water: 28.5 meters.

That's more like half timber (on top of a rock wall)!  This really was a very pretty castle!

What happens if I shoot this thing, dad?

Me:  Grant, who do you think that is?  Grant:  Me, as an adult.  Naked on a horse.

It's the first of April and there aren't many flowers blooming here in Germany yet.  So we try to enjoy all that we see!

Natalie:  Awww, she looks pretty, let's take a picture!.  Todd: I'll just stand here and try not to pose awkwardly.  Grant: SHE HAS BOOBS, I'M OUTTA HERE.

There is a nice little chapel called the Lutherkapelle on the grounds.  Martin Luther did some of his translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek to German for about six months at Coburg Castle in 1530 during the Diet of Augsburg.  What Martin Luther did for religion was incredible in and of itself, but what he did for the German language was even more spectacular.  His translation of the Bible brought to light the fact that due to the numerous German territories, duchies, counties and principalities, the German language had so many dialects that you could have people from different sides of the Germanic lands who did not understand each other, even though they were speaking the "same language."  Luther's Bible helped to create a more universal German language and had great impacts on education reform (now all students could be taught the Bible in school).

Dead birds of Germany.  Don't ask why my husband likes taking pictures of these things!  (Secret: I think I took this picture!)

The views over the most northern piece of Bavaria are beautiful from Coburg Castle!

Very cool shot looking down from Coburg Castle.  The building you see in the middle used to be a restaurant (and maybe a little hotel?) but it was under extensive renovation.  The car park is behind the trees way up in the upper right!

Todd taking a picture of me taking a picture of him!

This is actually the picture I was taking.  It was definitely built on a high hill -- you can see Coburg Castle from several miles away!

We decided to go in and check out the museum.  It wasn't super huge (good if you have kids who don't really care about this kind of stuff).  The first stop was the Fürstenbau, which are the Ducal Palaces.

I'm the only one who could bring a backpack in this museum because it had Grant's EpiPen in it and we weren't sure whether we were going to stop at the café and have a snack.  But they told me I couldn't wear it on my back. I had to wear it like this. Huh.

Inside of the Lutherkapelle.  There's been a church on this site since the 11th century!

Why is this deer smiling at me!?!   This is the happiest deer to be theoretically dead.

All I could think of was Zoltar here!

Yes, yes... we KNOW Todd!  You're too tall for just about everything in Europe!  This poor guy has hit his head on MORE things on this continent!

A super cool model of Coburg Castle.

This was made out of wood!  It was so pretty!

I'm a sucker for beautiful blown glass.  If I was shopping, these are things I would like to buy!

Again, this is as close to creepy baby doll heads as we have come in a long while.

I liked this impressionist painting by Max Lierbermann of the tennis courts in Noordwijk an Zee, Holland.  It was also in the Duchess' Salon.  I don't know much about art, but I know how it makes me feel.  Sometimes I see a painting and think, meh.  But I really liked this one.  It looked like everyone was having fun and that made me happy.  I'm definitely going to have to look into more of his works!

Christ and His 11 Apostles.  Why were there only 11?  Judas was missing!  Also conspicuously missing?  All of their hands!  They were apparently at one point holding a book in one hand, and their individual attribute in the other (for example, James is often shown with a staff and a scallop shell).  However, those were lost over time.

Todd liked this painting.  Of course he did.

This incredible book is the Gandersheim Gospels and it was made at a school in the mid 800s (!!!!) in the town of Metz, France.  Did you know that Gregorian chant was ALSO founded in Metz in the 700s?  Metz was the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty that lasted from 714 to 1124.  You might know one of their leaders as Charlemagne.

The Intarsia Hunting room was last on our tour.  WOW, is all I can say. The intricate wood paneling work was finished in 1632 and used to be in the Ehrenburg Palace, but was relocated here to Coburg Castle in the 1800s.

As if I couldn't love this room more, another beautiful ceramic fireplace!  This was made in Nuremberg in 1540.

My giant checking out the details.  I like that he actually cares about this stuff and doesn't just want to check it off of a checklist.  He really wants to learn stuff!

Even the stairway was cool!  So are the two kiddos in this picture!

I love flowers!  Winter has seemed too long!

Ahhh.  Now that's nice!

Our very, very last stop was the Amoury and Hunting weapons room.  I hope that's stuffed, otherwise it's gonna get REAL stinky in here!

I guarantee she was wondering what it would look like if she was royalty and was riding in this coach.  (More likely she was thinking about what she would be wearing, although don't base what your imagination is coming up with it on her current sense of style!)  In the background, the gold carriage you see is actually the oldest in the world that's still functioning.  It was built in 1560.

This guy was on the wall. I've definitely come to realize that there's almost always a meaning for everything in a room in Europe.  Although sometimes I have no idea what it might be!

Wait, does this really shoot heart shaped bullets!?!  (Haha, no... I see that it doesn't, but wouldn't that be cool if it did!?)  I'm sure so many people asked this question that they actually fired off a shot through a heart shaped piece of paper just to show you how the bullet actually looks!

Armory and weapons.

Lastly, we wanted to run around a bit before we had to get back in the car, so we took the kids out through one of the gates and let them run around the "side yard" of Veste Coburg.

Little Girl, not happy with me at the moment.  Big Boy, being goofy.

Until next time, Coburg Castle!