Königswinter is a good trailhead if you go out to discover the Siebengebirge, the hiking trails take you to Mount Drachenfels and beyond. Since the first days of Rhine romanticism and Rhine tourism, Königswinter and Mount Drachenfels was a must on the agenda.
The city
Königswinter-city is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bonn-Bad-Godesberg, beneath the Siebengebirge. The mountains Drachenfels, Wolkenburg and Petersberg rise right behind the town. Königswinter is a wine-growers town, and that goes back to the Middle Ages.
Numerous small and large excursion boats moor at the Rhine promenade, with which you can travel down the Rhine to Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf and further to Holland, or up the Rhine through the famous Middle Rhine Valley to Linz, Coblenz, Mainz, Bingen and even further into the Rheingau. On the page Rhein- und Siebengebirge links you will find some shipping lines.
From Königswinter to Mount Drachenfels
Drachenfelsbahn, rack railway
You can ride on the rack railroad, this is an exciting short trip. The valley station is at the very end of the Drachenfelsstraße. Halfway up there is the middle station, where you can visit Drachenburg Castle and the Museum of Nature Conservation History.
Drachenburg Castle
Halfway between Königswinter-city and Mount Drachenfels stands Drachenburg Castle. The intermediate station serves it. Here, Baron Sarter from Bonn had his dream estate built at the end of the 19th century. The style is called historicism – a style which used historical forms, but which overlays and mixes them. Today, the outer bailey houses the museum on the history of nature conservation. Technically, however, Drachenburg Castle was state of the art.
Drachenfelsbahn
Schloss Drachenburg
Hiking trail
The “classic” hiking trail Eselsweg (donkeys’ way) begins at the Eselsbrunnen at the Rhine, then it leads through Drachenfelsstraße towards the valley station. Next to the valley station, a steep road leads up towards Mount Drachenfels. On your way, you pass the Nibelungenhalle with the reptile zoo and numerous excursion restaurants.
Through the Nightingale Valley
You can also go through the romantic nightingale valley. That sounds a bit tacky I know, but the Nachtigallental is just beautiful. Here you are right in a Siefen, that is our German word for our narrow, wet, v-shaped valleys with their small streams that are so typical for the Siebengebirge.
It starts at the very end of Bahnhofsstraße in Königswinter-city, so just around the corner from the train station Königswinter, and not far away from the parking lot. At the end of Bahnhofstraße, you go underneath the B42 expressway, and you are in the Nightingale Valley. What a contrast!
Trailhead Königswinter – Siebengebirge hiking – Links
Naturpark Siebengebirge | Tourismusachse Nachtigallental über Dechendenkmal Ausgangspunkt (R5) und Tourismusachse Eselsweg zum Drachenfels (R6)
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