Hiking around Burg-Ramstein

The weather this past weekend was perfect for a fall hike and we felt this would be a good way to ease back into our life in Germany after a month-long break. We decided to visit the village of Kordel not far from us (about 30 minutes drive). There is plenty of hiking and biking trails all throughout the surrounding hills and fields, including Burg-Ramstein. This area is known for a castle ruin that dates back to the year 915. This former residential castle stood over 4-stories tall at one time and was built in sections over time until the fire in 1675 destroyed most of the castle. During the final days of the Spanish Succession War, the remaining castle was set on fire and has since remained uninhabital. The castle ruin today sits next to a restaurant where you can satisfy your hunger and thirst after a long hike. But we'll get to that later. We should start at the beginning of the hike.

The plan was to navigate the many surrounding trails in such a way so that we completed a large loop ending at the castle ruin and restaurant. Did we bring our map? No. That would remove any sense of adventure. Instead we relied on our memory of the map at the trailhead for the entire area. Fool proof plan, I tell you.

The first section of the hike goes along the creek which offers amazing views of the water cascading down the rocks and through the forest.

The trail eventually leads to a road where you have a choice to make: head back directly to the castle ruins or push on into the fields and beyond and "find a different way" back. You know we chose the latter without hesitation.

We were quickly rewarded with some great views:

Heading back into the forest and we came across a remaining section of Langmauer, or German for "long wall". This long wall dates back to the year 364 and was built by the Romans. This wall is believed to have stretched out over 75 kilometers (or 45 miles), although the significance remains a bit of a mystery. The wall was not tall enough for military purposes (nearly 2 meters high, or about 7 feet), but would be ideal to help keep out some un-welcomed animals with poor jumping abilities. Talk about keeping the neighbors cows out of your yard.

The forest here is very open, which is quite different for us. We have spent most of our lives hiking in the Pacific Northwest where the forest floor is covered with vegetation and fallen logs. That is something that is unique about Germany: you will not see a fallen log stay on the forest floor for long as they will harvest this wood for heating of homes and fuel for furnaces. Way to keep it efficient, Deutschland!

It is amazing how mature trees have figured out how to grow on top of rocks:

Our next stop....or at least the next sign we found, was the Genovevahohle (or "Genoveva cave" in German).

I give you the Genovevahohle.

Why the name? Well, the history surrounding the name is somewhat of a misfortune. Basically a Count from years ago accused his wife of starting a family with another man while he was off fighting wars and ordered his wife and the child to be killed. Instead of meeting their end, their lives were spared by the soldiers ordered to carry out the sentence in exchange for her promise to live the rest of her days hiding out in the forest. The Count soon regretted his hasty orders and fell into deep depression. Some years later, while out hunting, he came across this cave and found his wife and the child living inside the dwelling. Legend goes that while he was overcome with joy and quickly rushed them back to the castle, his wife died not long after as a result of the tough times she endured while living off the land. Today it is an impressive structure that you can climb up into for a look around and imagine what life would be like living in such confined quarters for all those years.

OK, enough cave dwelling. We have been hiking for a few hours now and it's time to reward our efforts with a hearty lunch at the restaurant mentioned earlier. A quick pace and about a half hour later and we were finally rewarded with the most beautiful sight of the day: the nearly empty deck. You can see the top of the castle ruin in the background:

Not 10 minutes later and several small groups arrived at the restaurant. We felt very fortunate to have a perfect hike end with a perfect lunch while soaking up the warm sun and enjoying the view of the neighboring hills: