Our street here is named ‘Zu den Ringwällen’, which literally translates as, ‘To the Ring Walls!’ Of course, this took us a while to figure out, and even longer to say correctly to the unfortunate German taxi drivers who pick us up at the airport. Can you imagine being a cabbie and picking up a foreigner who says, ‘To the Ring Walls!’? You would think they were nuts. Even worse, the way it’s pronounced in German – ‘TSU dane HYLING-vaellen’ – is pretty much still impossible for us to say. We’ve realized we needed to just tell the driver to please take us to a nearby street, saving us from both the pronunciation problem and the mental competency question (on that one, perhaps not fully).

It was a long time before we had the headspace to really wonder what our street’s name meant – we had figured there must have been ring walls of an old town nearby, but that was about all we knew, and again, it’s not something you can easily ask your German neighbors (‘where are the Ring Walls?). But recently, Matt bought a topographic map of all the nearby hiking trails, and we saw that one of the mountains (Bleibeskopf, or ‘stay head’) is the site of the ruins of the ring walls that our street is named after. Wow! So, after a long weekend of being re-quarantined together as a family (gosh, it’s really not as fun as the first time around!), I decided on a whim this past Sunday afternoon to hike up and see what these ring walls are all about. Three hours of solitude on a chilly but sunny November afternoon? Yes please!

It was a beautiful hike to the peak of Bleibeskopf, made prettier by a backlit forest valley and great fall color. As I reached the top of the mountain, I could almost feel the change from normal hiking trail, to that feeling you get from being in a special place – which in this case came from the numerous rock cairns left by previous pilgrims, the ruins of the ring walls blending in with the natural rock formations, and only a few other pairs of hikers resting quietly and enjoying the peace. The foundations of the ring walls are clearly visible as remnants of the ancient Celtic tribes that used to live here, replaced later by Roman camps, replaced later by the Germanic tribes, and now a hiking destination for this tired mom.

It was so cool to finally find the actual ruins indicated by the name of our street – a name it’s probably had for centuries. To the Ring Walls!