It will be another week or two before the pictures which I took on leave are developed, but until then here are some pictures I took before I went on Leave. The pictures in this envelope were almost all taken at a place called Coburg Castle. The Castle is in a fairly small town called Coburg, which is about 35 miles from Bamburg and only about 10 miles from the East German Border.
This first picture gives you somewhat of an idea of what the castle looks like from a distance although it makes it seem smaller than it really is.
This is the main entrance to the castle. The walls and the main buildings inside are all in very good condition.
This is a shot of the same tower that was in the picture above except it was taken from the inside.
Also inside the walls, I took this picture of the largest cannon I have ever seen. Although you can't see them in this picture, the top of the cannon is covered with many very elaborate carvings.
Up against one of the inside walls of the castle I saw this German war memorial. From the dates on the top of it, it seems like it is probably for the First World War.
I believe this part of the castle is called the ramparts. As you can see they still have the old cannons in their positions.
This is just a closer look at one of the cannons above and also a little view of the countryside around the castle.
I was lucky enough to be there just as they were starting a tour of the inside of one of the buildings, so I got in on it. The commentary was all in German, so I really don't know the details about the things I saw inside, but it was very interesting just looking around. Unfortunately I only had one flash bulb with me so I used it on this suit of armor. There were many things inside that were just as interesting though.
After I left the Coburg Castle I drove on out to the border, just to see what it looked like. I had thought I would be able to get pictures of fences and guard towers, Russian patrols, etc., but as it turned out this sign was the only thing I saw that gave me any idea I was on the East German Border. There probably were fences and everything else further down the road, but I thought it best to do what the sign said. One thing I can't figure out though, and that is that they put that sign on a part of the road where there was absolutely no place to turn around! I was forced to keep going till about where the road curves in the picture until I found a place to turn around. I was glad to leave the area, because it gave ma a very uneasy feeling being that close!
This last picture is the last possible view of my car that I can get, unless I crawl under it and take one looking up. As you can see the engine is not as big as you might think by looking at the outside of the car. Also although you might think this is a rear engine car, technically it is a mid-engine car, mainly because it is in front of the rear axle.
More later...
