A Pilgrimage to the 'Ring

As a grand finale to our honeymoon at the end of April, we flew from Dublin to Germany and headed out on the glorious Autobahn in our Opel Astra rental car. Our destination? The town of Nurburg and its world-famous Nurburgring race track.

We checked into the Hotel am Tiergarten , which is run by the Schmitz family and serves as headquarters for the grassroots Save The Ring campaign, which aims to protect the historic track from recent "NüroDisney" type overdevelopment. We also enjoyed dinner in the hotel's Pistenklause Restaurant, where the walls are slathered with decades of racing memorabilia.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to go pick up our race-prepped Suzuki Swift track rental car at Rent Race Car.

At the track, we purchased a 6-lap ticket and headed out on our first run. After you scan your ticket, it's pedal-to-the-metal as you begin a 12.9-mile race to the finish, with Porsches and Ferraris passing you around tight corners at lightning speed. To be honest, it's quite terrifying. The track is full of ridiculous elevation changes and blind corners as it meanders through the Eifel mountains. Not to mention, once you get ON the track, you can't get OFF until the finish.

After Henry ran the first two laps, I managed to calm my nerves enough to drive a lap. It's actually LESS terrifying to be the driver than the passenger, as the little car was surprisingly agile when thrown into the corners (all 73 of them....yes, SEVENTY-THREE). After a white-knuckle, heart-pounding ride, I made it to the finish line....yippee!

After Henry ran the last couple of laps, we turned the car in and headed out to spectate. The atmosphere is quite festive at the various spectating points along the 'ring, with people barbequing, drinking good ol' German bier, chatting with other spectators, checking out each other's rides, and just generally having a good time. Unfortunately, accidents on the 'ring seem pretty common, which would result in the track being shut down until the damaged vehicle could be removed.

The track seems to attract some interesting characters as well, just proof that motorsports enthusiasts are a diverse bunch!

Overall, our pilgrimage to the Nurburgring was an amazing experience, and something else to scratch off the bucket list! And perhaps the best part of the trip? Henry actually "earned" the requisite Nurburgring sticker for his Subaru back home!