Germany- Luther Tour, Day 8:Erfurt to Veste Coburg to Mainz-August 8, 2017

Today, we would have to cover a lot of miles, so the wake up call would be at 6:15. We got up at 6 and the bags were out on time at 6:45. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet, but with all the choices, how couldn't we?
Since my knees had made it clear that the climb yesterday was not their idea of fun and we had another castle to climb to today, I resorted to a support on my right knee and put the collapsible cane in the backpack. They haven't liked stepping down from the bus, when there is no curb. It makes for a very big bend for one of them and the arthritis just doesn't make that comfortable. I'm having to hold on to handles and sides of the bus, when Charlie or Brane is not there to help me down.
When we got on the bus at 7:45 it was a chilly 15 C or 59 F and cloudy. 87-year-old D and his daughter M were late, because he had not been feeling great. We left about 8, and as Brane talked history, I dozed off. Of course.
At 9:45, we arrived below Veste Coburg, a fortress castle in Bavaria. (Festung in German means fortress and feste means firm. I suspect that Veste is related to those two words.) Brane assured us that the climb would not be as bad as yesterday. That was true to an extent. We didn't have steps to climb, but the road was rather steep at times and really tough on some of the oldest of the group. The views of the fortress and its multiple layers of wall were rewarding.

It is one of Germany's largest castles and its building began in the 10th century. Over the years, more layers of fortification were added. Eventually, the castle belonged to the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. If you are into the British monarchy, that might sound really familiar. That's because Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The British royal family changed their last name during World War I.
So, why are we here, when we are on a Luther tour? Well, it is another castle where he hid out. This time it was from April to October 1530 during the Diet of Augsburg. He continued his work on the Bible while he was here. They are doing a special exhibit, of course, which in English is called "Knights, Peasants, Lutherans". There's an old stone plaque for Luther on a tower in an inner courtyard.

A couple of us discovered stairs leading up from the entrance passageway to some very modern restrooms. They must have a lot of events here to justify such nice restrooms.
We gathered inside about 10 and were given special headsets to hear the tour. Brane had told us to leave backpacks in the bus, but now they were telling him that his bag with the whispers equipment and the larger purses had to be locked up in a cage. I was not thrilled, but he assured me that he would have the key and he would meet us there after the tour to get our purses, so that we could shop. I really don't like giving up my purse, but there was no choice.
We'd been split into two groups again and as we waited to go in to the main part of the exhibit, I noticed a rack with folded stools. A couple of the women took one and my husband decided that this could be helpful for me and he volunteered to carry it around for me. Any time we were in one place for a while and there was room, I'd use the stool, which my back truly appreciated.
The headsets were helpful, because there were a lot of people there. The guide did not tell us about everything in the exhibition, and I found myself checking out as much of what was around me as possible. The guide told us a lot of the Luther history that we had heard before, but he did share something new, at least to me. There was a German Peasants' War from 1524-1525. Luther took a middle ground in the war, criticizing both the nobility and the peasants. However, he eventually decided that the peasants were guilty of the greatest evil because they broke the peace. They rather expected his support, but he rejected their violence and encouraged the nobles to put down the uprising brutally. Once again, the hero's warts were shown.
We weren't allowed to take pictures, which is unfortunate. There was a cool statue that had movement and there were some other things worth taking pictures of.
I took note, when the guide said that Lutherans receive communion in both forms and Catholics only one. When the tour was over at 11:30, I sought him out to tell him that in America, many, if not most Catholic churches receive in both forms. He said that that wasn't true in Germany. I said that I knew, but it was in the US. He thanked me and said he would add it to his tour! This had been one of the religious conversations that my husband and I had already had on this tour. I'd researched and found out that we had stopped doing communion in both forms around the 1300s. It was decided that the Eucharist was too holy for just any one to handle it. No doubt, fear of spilling the cup led to ending the sharing of the cup. We believe that Christ is fully present in both forms, so receiving just the host is fine. Since Vatican II, we've been moving back to both forms. It takes permission from the bishop for a parish to do it and evidently in many countries, they've given blanket permission. It used to be a very special thing to receive the cup on Holy Thursday, when I was younger. Now, I feel disappointed if I am in a church that doesn't give the cup.
Once I had my purse back, I could shop in the nice gift shop. I found a lovely clear glass heart pendant with stripes of red in it for only 8 Euros. I also found a pin with Lucas Cranach's snake symbol.
It was warmer now with high clouds and we took some time to take photos. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to look around the rest of the castle.

By 12:10, we were back down the hill waiting for the bus. A couple of people bought ice cream from the stand there, which I couldn't understand, because how could they eat it fast enough. I saw a pin there, but at 10 Euros, it was a ridiculous price.
At 1:40, I think Brane and Charlie gave up looking for a rest area and they took an exit of the A70 near Schweinfurt for lunch. Charlie parked behind a restaurant and I took one look at it and knew we couldn't eat in there and be back on the bus at 2:30. There was a McDonald's next door, so we cut through the playground and parking lot next to the restaurant and went to McD. We like to eat there once a trip, anyway, to see what it was like. I managed to get in line before the crowd hit. I ordered a Big Tasty Bacon McMenü for 8,19 and my husband go the Hamburger Royal TS McMenü for 7,29. Both came with a free Coke glass, which is not something you see back home. We got red and blue. My sandwich was good, but I really had to search for the bacon. The fries tasted like back home, which I loved. We actually filled the sodas ourselves, which I've never done in Europe.

We had a little time and we went in the Aldi next door to see if there was anything that would be good to take home. I found 2 name-brand chocolate bars that totaled 2, 58, a real bargain. I was worried about the time, but I shouldn't have. We were on time, but we were 15 minutes late again. This was because, as I suspected, the service in the restaurant was slow. There seemed to be some indication that some folks never got served. Less than 15 minutes later, Charlie pulled into a parking area to check the bus. Evidently, all was fine.
We passed a lot of solar farms and  agriculture, including vineyards in the Würzburg area.

By 4, it was grey with some big clouds. And, at 5:12, we crossed the Rhine.

They seemed to have to search a bit for the hotel again. At 5:37, we pulled into the Hilton in Mainz right on the Rhine River. We were assigned to room 403 in building 1, which was very well appointed and had a good view of the city.

 

Dinner was at 7 in a section of the dining room set aside for us. My husband gave me the seat facing the windows overlooking the Rhine. The waitress came around with 3 bottles of wine and I chose Zechwein from the Rheingau. S., the organist from the Wyoming group, sat next to us and he and my husband had plenty to talk about. I talked with a friend of his mother, who is from Winchester, Virginia. We've been there and she also has a D.C. connection, so we had a nice chat.
Dinner was a buffet with a large number of selections, but not as many as Erfurt.

 

 

 At 8:50, my husband and I went out the door of the dining room to stroll the Rhine. That is a seriously cool thing to be able to do. We walked down to the very crowded Weinfest that was farther downstream, but soon turned back upstream.  We checked out the boats that were cruising the Rhine, but were docked for the night. One even had bicycles for the guests. The sunset was gorgeous.

At 9:05, we reached their very modern Rathaus (city hall). This picture was taken after the sunset pictures. That's how weird the light was.

By 9:20, my husband was cold and we headed back.
The Hilton was the only hotel on the entire trip without free wi-fi. I thought that was ridiculous. I posted my sunset photo on the bus the next day using its free wi-fi. Yes, the bus had free wi-fi each day until the allotted bandwidth was used up.
I only did 5,581 steps today, which is the least of the trip so far.