The best cycling routes in Rheinaue Zons-Rheinfeld Und Altrheinschlinge Zons

Whoever is looking for the cemetery must want to look for it. It is not by the wayside. It does not impose itself. No large signs. No crowds of visitors. No staging. Just forest. And then suddenly it stands before us: the wall. Intact. Almost 1.80 meters high. It encloses the cemetery like a final embrace from the past. The gate is locked. Behind it lie the stones. Few, though. And yet they are enough. Twenty-five gravestones. Fragments in between. Broken names. Weathered inscriptions. Stone remnants of people whose stories have long since disappeared. The oldest preserved gravestone dates from 1771. The last burial took place in 1936. Between them lie more than a century and a half of Jewish life on the Lower Rhine. I stand at the gate. A Jewish cemetery has something peculiar about it. It does not tell of great events. Not of wars. Not of politics. Not of rulers. It tells of people living here. That they married. Had children. Traded. Argued. Prayed. Grew old. And finally died. Perhaps that is why the silence of this place touches me. Because Zons was once more than the beautiful medieval backdrop that visitors see today. Until the 19th century, the Jewish community here was larger than that in neighboring Dormagen. There was a synagogue, a school, and this cemetery. Today, little remains of all that. But the cemetery has remained. And the wall. It was built in 1925, after the cemetery had been desecrated several times. It was financed by descendants of Zons Jews who had long since emigrated to New York. That too tells a story. People had left. But not forgotten. They lived on another continent and yet ensured that their parents' graves remained protected. Perhaps that is the true meaning of a cemetery. Not to hold onto the past. But to make responsibility visible across distances and generations. The forest is quiet. No visitors. No noise. Just Manfred and me in front of a locked gate. And yet I have the feeling that this place is not abandoned. It is remembered.

Varied gravel passages between the Rhine, fields, and Chorbusch. The quiet forest paths south of Delhoven offer riding fun away from traffic and, together with the Rhine views, provide a real Lower Rhine feeling. 🌳🌾🌊

Very nice cycle path, highly recommended

The important German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 to 1804) once formulated the following thought: “He who lives in the memory of his loved ones is not dead, he is only gone; only he who is forgotten is truly dead.”

The Dormagen World Shop offers fair trade products such as coffee, tea, chocolate, and handicrafts. Volunteers provide information about fair trade and global connections. The visit adds the aspect of global responsibility to the tour.

Well, for a short rest...

Great route… You can really push yourself here… Highly recommended. 👌

In case of flooding you have to take a detour 🙃