Nothgottes Monastery – At twilight in the Blaubach Valley

Route: Nothgottes – Blaubachquelle – Altes Forsthaus Rüdesheim – Nothgottes
Start Nothgottes: 6.00 p.m.
Distance: 9.0 kilometers, 200 meters of elevation
Hiking time: 2:15 hours
Breaks / Info: 1:00 hour
Total time: 3:15 hours

Water is the source of all life on Earth. Since biblical times, the sound of flowing water has been attributed with a calming effect. A softly bubbling spring sounds like the melody of delicate music, a gurgling brook soothes with its steady tone, and a roaring waterfall announces the power of water.

Hikers experience this on a tour with Wolfgang Blum. As part of the 10th anniversary of the Rheingauer Klostersteig, he invites you on Saturday, August 29, starting at 6 p.m. to a tour around Kloster Nothgottes. The hike leads along the Blaubach to Offermannteich and further to the spring near Röspelkopf. Now it goes downhill in the forest to the former Rüdesheimer Forsthaus and, in the twilight, back to Nothgottes on a section of the Rheingauer Klostersteig in Kühtränkergraben. There, the Cistercian monks, who have been living in the monastery since 2014, invite you to a short closing prayer.

The hike lasts three hours including breaks. Anyone who wants to join needs to be ready for 9.0 kilometers of trail and an ascent of 200 meters. The monastery can be reached by car from Rüdesheim via the district of Windeck, parking spaces are available. The tour takes place in any weather.

The Blaubach is one of the longer streams of the Rheingau at 7.5 kilometers. From the spring in the Geisenheim forest near Röspelkopf to the confluence at Rhine kilometer 523 at the sand loading facility Vollmer, it loses more than 300 meters of elevation. Until it reached Kloster Nothgottes, it was formerly called Trockenbach, and then it became Stegbach upon merging with Kühtränkerbach. The Klostersteig accompanies both valleys a little in the forest.

Kloster Nothgottes is one of the three "living" monasteries along the Rheingauer Klostersteig. Since 2014, ten Cistercian monks from the Chau Son convent in South Vietnam have been living and working in this secluded valley. The small monastery chapel was once an important pilgrimage site of the Diocese of Limburg, and even today pilgrims regularly arrive there.

Participation in the tour is free of charge.
Info: 06722 / 750508 or info@rheingau.com.