German Christmas Tour: Day 12 - Coburg

It was a wet day today with intermittent, annoyingly light rain as we made our way out to a (as it turns out way too leisurely) breakfast back at Cafe Seel. Omlettes were the order of the day, and yet again my German failed me as I ordered 3 and not 4. Breakfast was nice, (despite Eb despising the coffee) but it took a little longer than expected and as a result we missed our 9am train to Coburg.

Back for a sit down breakfast at Backerei Seel

After an hour wait for the next train, and a 25 minute trip on Franken Regio Bahn (the 30min walk to the train station took longer!) we had made it to Coburg - a nice little town with a cute christmas market nestled at the base of one of Germany's most well-preserved fortresses - Veste Coburg.

First thing, we headed for the markplatz and the christmas market (which we loved). The kids were finally able to buy some chocolate covered fruit, and of course I couldn't go past another Schaumkuss. Yum.

The Coburg christmas market - a great vibe.

The other business we had in the marktplatz was a visit to the Hof Apotheke! Here (and only here) you can buy the famed Coburg Hof Likor! It's 40% proof, tastes a little of citrus, pepermint and other random herbs. Weird.

Coburg's famous medicinal Likor from the Hof Apotheke 

Likor in hand, and with Eb taking swigs as we walked, we started on the trek up hill to the Veste Coburg. It was a lovely walk up through the park. Clau managed to collect a few acorns on the way up!  There were a lot of steps and our legs were burning by the end. but just as we were losing hope, a Hofbrau wirthaus appeared at the top of the steps just by the entrance to the fortress! We took a much welcome rest with a much welcome beer before continuing on into the fortress proper.

Veste Coburg - huge & impressive!

Fully rested, we walked along the ramparts and I even got a little vertigo looking out over the walls into the valley below. Very fucking impressive. While we didnt go into the museum at the top, we did do a good circuit of all there was to see in the castle grounds and around the walls. An amazing experience.

With the fortress thoroughly explored, we walked back down through the park back to the christmas market. It was time for sustenance, and the Coburg Bratwurst looked and smelled amazing. And smothered in senf, they tasted as good as they smelled! I even went back for seconds.

Coburger Bratwurst - so yum!

Before we left for the Hauptbahnhof, we looked for another Coburg speciality - the Schmatzchen - a honey gingerbread cookie that is unique to the town. We snaffled a bag as well as some more lebkuchen, and made our way back to the train.

Schmatzchen & Lebkuchen

Once back in Bamberg, Katrina and Clau walked back to the hotel for a rest while Eb and I walked back to the hotel via the Fässla Brauhaus. We managed to get a table, and started our residency with bier #24 for this trip - the Fässla Bock which was very heavy. I can't tell you why but it felt thick to drink. P-sycho-logical perhaps? Not the worst bock I've gad, but definiely not my favourite.

Bier #24 - Fässla Bock

To make up for the bock, we ordered a Weizen next - basically to wash the bock away. It's a beier we had tasted the day before so it didn't make the tally. Suffice to say, there's nothing special to report here.

With us both pretty happy at this stage, Eb decided that he had to also try the Fässla Lager. Pretty much every other punter in Fässla was drinking it. And so this became bier #25 of the trip.

The Fässla Lager - bier #25.

Turns out, there was a very good reason everyone was drinking the lager - it was pretty damn good! It's not something we would ever normally think to order, so we're going to have to re-think our approach on days to come!