Kronach

Last weekend we went to a little town near Augsburg called Buttenweisen to attend a wedding of Carolin Jakobs.  Unfortunately we forgot our camera!  The wedding was in the town hall foyer with all the guests standing and the couple and their witnesses seated before the town official.  He gave a rather long speech.  One of the guests fainted in the middle of it causing a small panic and a call to the ambulance.  After the wedding we all went to a biergarten for a sit down dinner and visiting.  We were seated with The bride's half sister and her boyfriend who was wearing a rodeo buckle.  Turns out he is an official of the ERCA, European Rodeo Cowboy association.  It was fun to learn about rodeo combining American (military) influence with German animal protection laws.

Today we had no appointments so we drove to Kronach to visit Festung Rosenberg, the largest intact fortress in Germany.  The original parts date from the 1200's and it was enlarged and fortified at least three different times.  The original fort had a medieval keep.  Later a second wall wall was built by digging a huge moat and using the earth to fill a 15 foot thick wall.  Then in the late 1700's five outer bastions were added.

The main entry gate from the 1700's

View from the outer bastion.  You can see the inner wall behind which is another deep courtyard.  The tower in the center is the old keep.

The keep with a later addition for a stairwell replacing the original ladders.

One part of the space between the inner and outer walls.

This covered bridge is the only exterior access from the outer bastions to the inner wall.   There are tunnels inside the walls.  This bridge was wooden so it could be burned in case of attack but the fort was never taken.

This give a some idea of the monumental size of the walls.

The city center of the town of Kronach still retains its medieval flavor with part of the city wall intact and lots of half timbered buildings along the very narrow streets.

As seen from the fort entrance.  The larger building on the right is the local prison.

One part of the old city wall.

This is the oldest fire house we have ever seen.  It is right in city center.  The rear side has large doors for modern fire engines.

On the left is another part of the wall.  The street narrows here when you enter the older part.

The town is proud of its most famous citizen, Lucas Cranach, one of my favorite artists.  We even have two Cranach prints hanging in our bedroom.  He was part of the transition from stylized church paintings to scenes from contemporary life.  Here are a couple of the works from the museum in the fortress.

This is the crowning with thorns but note the mocking guy in the lower left corner.

Regal elegance.

The town of Kulmbach and castle Plassenburg

First of all, Kulmbach is a brand of beer.  That is what the town is most famous for, I think, but we liked the castle, Plassenburg.  It is huge and old.  It dates from the 1100's but has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once so now it is a museum for Prussian military history and also houses the largest collection of toy tin figures ever.  The Hohenzollerns ruled from here and it was besieged by Napoleon's brother in 1806.

                       This is one of the galleries on the second story around the courtyard.

We found some interesting things in the museum like a chair to torture witches, a beautiful upright harpsichord and the upstairs outhouse.

    This evil thing has brackets for poles so the poor victim could be paraded through the town.

                                     We could tell the place was old by the size of the doors.

This is one of the tiny dioramas of tin figures.  These are Swiss guards and below is one of the many many battle scenes.  They also had historic scenes from all over the world including American Indians.  The museum claims it has over 300,000 tin figure toys.   I believe it.

We enjoyed the town as much as the castle.  Here is a view of the castle from the town and then part of the old town from the castle.

The town hall has four enormous beer barrels in front of it.  In the old town center there are many old half timbered buildings and narrow streets.  It is charming. We ended the day at the outdoor eiscafe...that is ice cream shop!  Of course!

                               One last thing.  I have seen this shoe store sign in other towns

but there is not one in Hof where we live.  I think I would shop there just because of the name.

'Kletter" or Climbing Park at Untreusee

On Saturday August 10 our small branch Primary had an activity at this climbing park in the woods near the local lake.  It is really cool.  They have zip lines and an adventure challenge all through the trees and one zip even goes across the lake and back.  We had 10 branch members and guests participate. 

Front row is Helene Hemann, Jonas Forberig and Vincent Grunbichler .  The back row includes two cousins of Robert and Clara Hemann, then Celina Grunbichler and her father Samuel, and last Grit Forberig.

Robert trying to jump from the top platform to the padded green one.  He didn't make it.

Helene on one of the challenge walks.

Jonas climbing up the rope net to the platform.

Samuel on a zip line.

Vincent finishing the zip over the lake to where his dad is.

Clara on the zip across the lake.

Celina descending after having succeeded in ringing the bell.  This climbing rope is about 30 feet high with knots that get successively further apart.

Having lunch with harnesses still on so they can climb after eating.  They were at it for about four hours.  We were just onlookers.

House (dog) sitting

One of our members had to be away for the weekend for a family event and asked us to house sit to tend their two dogs, spaniels of some kind.  We enjoyed our evening in the very elegant home but didn't enjoy that one of the dogs seemed to have bowel problems leading to bathroom breaks every two hours....all night long.   The family have spent a lot of time end energy making their home just what they want.  They have very good taste.

They have included a lot of family heirlooms such as the staff mounted over the picture.

If I am remembering correctly the glass chandelier is from Italy.

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 The master suite starts in the office, not pictured, and goes through the large open bath to the bedroom, all very open.

 The home is four levels, basement, ground floor with kitchen library dining room and family roomand two levels above.  They have three daughters, each with their own bedroom and bath.

The spaniels are sated after dinner time but ready for another walk.

Coburg

This month we went to Coburg, about an hour away to visit a castle.  You know by now we like to do that and our mission president encourages us to really get to know the German culture.   Coburg was one of Germany's largest castles.  Martin Luther lived there for a number of months in 1530.  It  dates from the eleventh century and was rebuilt many times, especially in the fifteenth century when most of what now exists was constructed.  The family no longer used it as a home after the 16th century and it is now a museum housing a large collection of art objects and paintings, a large collection of arms and armor, and fun examples of early modern coaches and sleighs.

  We thought this stuffed horse looked too small for a real knight then read that these were used for jousts and show rather than war.  We could tell, no dents.

These sleighs were particularly interesting because they were used by ladies in mock jousts.  A driver sat on the seat behind which you can see on the third sled.  The lady used the jousting stick to try to catch rings or such.

Afterward we ate lunch at the castle restaurant and the waitress brought us a menu in English but printed in old German script.  I asked Dave about one of the menu items and he read it out loud as if it were German, not realizing it was English until he realized how weird it sounded.  His brain  understood it and menus are in German so it must be German.  We both a had a good laugh.  Shows how the mind works when you think in two languages.