__NOTOC__ The Red Wine Trail (''Rotweinwanderweg''), opened in 1972, is a trail that runs high above the floor of the Ahr Valley linking the wine villages of the

Ahr wine region Ahr is a wine region (''Anbaugebiet'') for quality German wine, wine in Germany,Wein.de (German ...

in Germany along the River Ahr. The route runs from

Altenahr Altenahr () is a municipality in the Ahrweiler (district), district of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative centre for the Verbandsgemeinde Altenahr, eponymous collective municipality, to which it belongs. Altenahr ...

via

Mayschoß Mayschoß is a municipality in the district of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...

, Rech and Dernau to the well known rock formation of ''Bunte Kuh'' near Walporzheim. The Red Wine Trail then continues to the former abbey of Marienthal. It then goes to the Government Bunker Documentation Site, the Roman villa near

Ahrweiler Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler () is a spa town in the German Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate that serves as the capital of the Ahrweiler district. The A61 motorway connects the town with cities like Cologne and Mainz. Formed by the merging of the ...

, the memorial by the

Silberberg Tunnel Silberberg is German for "Silver Mountain" or "Silver Hill" and may refer to: Mountains, hills and hill spurs ;Austria * Silberberg (Tyrol) (ca. 1,200 m; mit ''Silberbergalm'', 1,175 m), near Reith im Alpbachtal (near Brixlegg), Inn val ...

and continues via Heppingen to the station square of

Bad Bodendorf Sinzig is a town in the district of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Rhine, about 5 km south-east of Remagen and 25 km south-east of Bonn, and it has approximately 20,000 inhabitants (2004). ...

. Most of the trail runs through the open vineyards on the northern slopes of the Ahr Valley. Many parts of the path are tarmacked because they are used by agricultural vehicles so that special hiking equipment is not necessary. At weekends and in the months of September and Oktober the hiking trail, which is the most popular in the

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

, is very busy. During the grape harvest at the end of September and during events (running, wine festivals or firework displays) the path may be closed in places.

Literature

* Christoph Lüttgen: ''Rotweinwanderweg ''. Eifel-Verlag, Cologne, 2012, * Peter Squentz: ''Die Ahr. Von der Mündung bis zur Quelle in 31 Tippeltouren. 31 Touren und der gesamte Rotweinwanderweg in drei Etappen''. Cologne, 2000 * Vera Kettenbach: ''Das Ahrtal von Bad Bodendorf bis Altenahr.'' Gaasterland-Verlag, 3rd edn. Düsseldorf, 2010,

External links

* http://www.ahr-rotweinwanderweg.de/ * http://www.ahrtal.de/aktivitaeten/wandern/rotweinwanderweg/ * http://www.rotweinwanderweg.de
Aktuelle GPS-Daten auf Basis von OpenStreetMap im GPS Wanderatlas
{{Coord, 50.556514, N, 7.217438, E, name:Red Wine trailhead_region:DE-RP_type:landmark, display=title, format=dms Hiking trails in Rhineland-Palatinate Eifel Ahrweiler (district) Culture of Rhineland-Palatinate Ahr