The experience that mail coach Yvonne Körner gives her passengers can be described as a journey into the past.

Riding the nine-seater yellow stagecoach gives them an idea of ​​what it was like to travel further afield in times long past.

As cars keep passing and overtaking the carriage, the four horses trott leisurely along the streets.

A feeling of deceleration spreads, the seat cushions are comfortable and the passengers can enjoy the landscape.

Again and again, the postillion on the trumpet intoned a song: "High on the yellow wagon", "The Kreuzberg song" and "The thoughts are free" provide musical accompaniment to the journey.

“We drive once a day from Thursday to Sunday, the journey takes a total of three hours: one there, one hour break and one back.

We drive from Bad Kissingen to Aschach from Thursday to Saturday and to Bad Bocklet on Sundays,” explains Yvonne Körner.

During their stay in both places, guests can visit the café, visit the museum in Aschach Castle or take a walk through the spa gardens in Bad Bocklet.

"We're always fully booked.

Tickets can be purchased from the Bad Kissingen city ticket service.

We always take the people with us who then stand there and show us the tickets," says Körner.

Thomas Beck, spa director in Bad Bocklet, estimates: "I would say 70 percent of the passengers are tourists and spa guests, 30 percent locals.

It makes a wonderful birthday gift or an anniversary gift of some kind.” The stagecoach line in Bad Kissingen is the last in Germany, as nowhere else does it run at fixed times and regularly.

"The main reason why this is still in operation is actually the unique selling point that it represents for the health resorts," says Beck.

Municipalities bear most of the costs

In order to guarantee the preservation of the ride, the association “Friends of the Mail Coach Bad Kissingen – Bad Bocklet eV” was founded in 2005.

Up to this point, Deutsche Post was solely responsible for financing the line.

Beck has been with the association since it was founded and explains: "Deutsche Post has of course moved further and further away from such peripheral areas within the scope of its own business areas, and there were concerns that the complete exit of Deutsche Post would simply mean that these lines would no longer be operated can become.

For this reason, the regional sponsors of the two places decided to set up this association.” While the Post was initially involved in the financing, it broke away from it three years ago.

Since the entrance fees only cover a small part of the annual budget, the financing lies mainly with these six regional sponsors, the members of the association: the city, the district and the state bath Bad Kissingen, the district of Lower Franconia as well as the market Bad Bocklet and the state bath Bad bucklet.

Occasionally, individual donations reach the association: "We are of course very grateful for that, but the majority of the costs have to be borne by the local authorities," says Beck.