The best walks and hikes in Westliches Ahrgebiet

From this bench, you have a beautiful view into the Lampertstal.

Bench to linger with a distant view. Very quiet and relaxing.

Saint Francis of Assisi, whose 800th anniversary of death we celebrate this year, describes our Christian life with the words of the Apostle Peter: He reminds us that we are called to "follow in the footsteps of Christ, who called his betrayer friend and voluntarily handed himself over to his crucifiers" (cf. NbR XXII, 2; cf. 1 Pt 2:21). The Poverello encourages us to turn our gaze to Jesus: "Let us all, brothers, pay attention to the good shepherd who, to save his sheep, suffered the torment of the cross" (Erm VI). Let us therefore accept the invitation of Saint Francis on this Way of the Cross to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, not only ritually or intellectually, but with our whole being and our whole life: "Offer yourselves, body and soul, and carry his holy cross and follow his most holy commandments to the very end" (Off XV 13). (from the introduction of the Way of the Cross meditation with the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, in the Roman Colosseum on April 03, 2026)

The Irish-born writer and literary scholar Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), author of the fantasy series „The Chronicles of Narnia“ (awarded the Carnegie Medal for Literature for the last volume in 1956), only found his way to Christianity after a phase of atheism and materialism. Before the sacred miniature monument standing here in the form of a Way of the Cross station, I quote an important sentence by C. S. Lewis, which he noted down in the period of his turning to Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer (1931): + „Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth of the same sort as all the others, but with the tremendous difference that he really happened.”

In the church newspaper for the Archdiocese of Cologne (issue 24/2025), Deacon Hanno Sprissler explains his perspective on the mystery of the Divine Trinity, to which this church on the southern edge of North Rhine-Westphalia is dedicated, as follows: "But doesn't every spiritual person actually have a very personal image of the divine, sometimes more personal, sometimes more abstract? How helpful is the Trinity in this, offering us various relationships! + Most people should be able to understand God the Father as the Creator God: the origin of all being, as that which existed before everything else and from which everything else emerged. + While seeing God in Jesus Christ as a human being is associated with apparent contradictions, it has the great advantage that this essence is very close to ours. Jesus is God's declaration of love made human! + (...) fits very well with the Holy Spirit, who for many people of our time is an abstract, unimaginable, and transcendent force that works in and through us, that strengthens us, and is available always and everywhere" (Deacon Hanno Sprissler)

The Dollendorf Way of the Cross runs from the northern edge of Dollendorf to Schloßthal, starting from the Catholic parish church of St. John the Baptist. There are nine footfalls along the way. At the highest point, at the seventh footfall, approximately halfway along the path, stands the Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua. The original Way of the Cross, established around 1700, only led as far as this point. Only later was it extended to Schloßthal. Therefore, at the end of the campsite near Schlossthal, the ninth station of the cross is now the final cross. It was erected in the second half of the 19th century. During this time, some of the older sandstone crosses were also renovated. Source: https://www.kuladig.de/Objektansicht/KLD-344419

This narrow hiking trail leads us along juniper bushes from the castle ruins of Schloßthal down into the Lampertstal.

From here you have a beautiful view of Dollendorf.