COBURG! (or, how we saw a lot of castles)

Hey all!

Once again apologies for the lack of posting, I've spent the better part of this week alternately dying in the library, or dying in my bed, after I fell off my bike and broke myself.  But I healed up just in time to go to COBURG! to see Al's city and meet his parents!

For starters, when Al asked me if there was anything I wanted to see in his corner of Bavaria, I said "castles."  Second, in the three hours it took to drive to his house, we saw ten.  So basically, my day was made and we hadn't even arrived yet.

I don't remember much of Friday because I was really, really tired, but I do remember that his parents were lovely, lovely, lovely people right from the get-go.  Also, I got to see pictures from when Al was little and blond!

Saturday we met up with one of his friends at a cafe for a bit, and then we hit the city. I'd heard before we arrived that Coburg has a tendency to look like Disneyland to Americans, and I can now officially say, that is completely true.  Check it out:

Most people would look at this building and assume it's very important/someone famous lived here.  Neither is true.  This is a bank.  How's that for neat!

And then there was the city's coat of arms, which at first glance, really freaked me out:

I was like, hey, pause session, is that a black man's head in profile?  Why yes, yes it is.  Hello there racism, how's your mother doing?

Good news!  This is actually the patron saint of Coburg.  He was a Moor (named Maurice.  Maurice the Moor.) that the Romans hanged, but not before first dragging him through the city.  So in case you ever wanted to become a patron saint of a German city, now you know the way. 

And here's where the Jews lived, until they weren't allowed to live there any more:

And the square, where everything is pretty:

And us, being us:

And here's the residential palace, where the royal family lived during peacetime:

And here's the fortress, where the royal family lived when the Swedes were trying to kill them:

Officially known as Veste Coburg, colloquially referred to as "That Kickass Castle On The Mountain."

The cool thing about Coburg is it's surrounded by approximately ten million castles, the biggest and most badass of which is Veste Coburg.  It's the second-biggest complete castle in the middle of Europe, and it was never taken over, mostly because it's a) really, really high up, and b) surrounded by three really, really thick walls.  But A for effort to you, Sweden.

For the better part of the afternoon, Al and I ran around the castle like fiends, taking silly pictures, looking for the dragon, and planning my future castle.  I found, to my amusement, that whatever view I had of the middle ages has more or less been displaced by the mutton-eating, skin-flaying, winter-is-coming bastards that inhabit Game of Thrones.  And from the battlements I also discovered what I'm pretty sure was Mordor.

More castle pictures:

And this is where they kept the bears up until the early 1900's.  Because, you know, if you can't have a dragon, the least you can do is a bear pit.

After an intense day of castle-ness, we went back to his parents' house for the Germany/Portugal soccer game.  I spent most of the first half making fun of Germany and referring to Ronaldo as the "king of Portugal", but the game proved so interesting, I wound up passing out for most of the second half.  Germany ultimately ended up winning, even though all were in agreement it was entirely undeserved, though this didn't stop me from changing allegiances in the last minute of the game.  Yes, you may call me Tina Turncloak.  Yes, I need to stop fucking reading Game of Thrones.

Sunday!  Was another castle day!  This time we started off with a lovely walk through the grounds of Schloß Rosenau, where Albert (Queen Victoria's Albert) was born.  We found black swans, minus Natalie Portman:

And then the castle.  Technically we were supposed to buy tickets, but I'm of the opinion "If you ask, the answer will be no."  So we marched in and looked around, and no one bothered us.  The revolution will start shortly.

There was a barn on the grounds!  Once again, walked in and pet animals:

Then we met up with his parents, and all took a roadtrip over to Schloß Callenberg, where the prince of Coburg lives with his American wife.  I spent much of the trip over contemplating what a fabulous pick-up like "I'm a prince of Germany" is.

The castle was super adorable.  Also, there was a chapel with a high pulpit I'm pretty sure the tourists aren't supposed to climb, but I'm a rebellious mountain goat who spent most of her temporary priesthood looking for her flock:

Then we wandered outside to find deer and mountain goats.  Apparently, the prince of Coburg enjoys occasionally shooting and eating them:

And that was our weekend!  The way back was smooth sailing, an Al even let me drive the last forty-five minutes to celebrate that my international license expires tomorrow.  Lots and lots of fun.  His city is gorgeous, his parents are so so so cute, and everything was amazing.

Back to the real world, I've got a metric crapton of Portuguese homework, and Al and I have a Swedish presentation tomorrow.  

See you guys soon!