At the time I was sitting in front of a warm fire here in my home in Seattle with my iPod Touch, having just discovered the wonders of looking at almost anywhere in the world, live, thanks to Livecams, an app with a database of webcams all over the world, and I was looking at the view from one of those cams which looks down on the Marktplatz from high in the Rathaus.
One advantage of watching the world through a webcam is that you can witness the rhythm of the life of a city as it changes from morning through the night, through good weather and bad, from season to season. As a traveller one can usually spend only a few days, a few weeks if one is fortunate enough, in any one place, not long enough for that.
The first time I saw the Marktplatz in Coburg it was nighttime there, eight hours ahead of my Seattle early afternoon. The square was deserted, crisscrossed by the tracks of vehicles in the recently fallen snow.
The next night that same square was alive, brightly illuminated and festive with its Christmas Market.
That scene lasted for some weeks, till one day workers with heavy construction equipment and trucks showed up, dismantling the stalls and taking them into storage for next winter.
Marktplatz reverted to a quiet stately role, the statue of Prince Albert, the consort of Britain’s Queen Victoria at its center. (That match was made here in Coburg and Victoria is said to have declared that she would always consider Coburg her second home. She made several visits here during her reign).
But not for long. One morning I logged on to find the square occupied again with busy stalls and crowds of shoppers milling about them. This had been its traditional role for centuries and the reason for its name Maktplatz. Those stalls would disappear during the night, a cycle, I would soon observe, of a market that takes place every Wednesday.
One weekend recently the square was the venue for an exhibition of classic cars.
Last weekend there was what appeared to be a candlelight vigil, most likely a religious observance.
One evening a large van parked in the square to offload tables and benches. Soon Marktplatz was turned into what must have been a beer garden. You could see smoke rising from the mobile kitchens, enticing, no doubt, with the aroma of bratwurst, urging one to quaff a stein of freshly drawn Bavarian brew! Summer had arrived in Coburg.
At intervals in this constantly changing panorama, a small van or two will park, in the same spot week after week, an awning will be unrolled and an entrepreneur will set up shop for a few hours.
Bustling life is constantly flowing through the Markplatz, but it also ebbs from time to time. Then, the fountains gush but not vigorously, a family strolls through with a toddler breaking from its parent’s hand to run away to the fountain, a mother pushes a stroller, a cyclist rides through, the odd car or truck takes a shortcut, a small knot of tourists clusters around a guide at the base of Albert’s monument. Markplatz, Coburg, may slumber occasionally, but it never sleeps.
