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Barefoot for a special kind of experience
When it's not snow melting and it hasn't rained like a bucket for days on end,
the Nahe is a good and harmless river, gentle and cuddly. So why not try to cross
the Nahe the way it used to be, but is now out of fashion? The barefoot path at
Bad Sobernheim offers two possibilities for a rather unconventional crossing: a
ford that leads through shallow, slowly flowing water to the other side or a small,
manually operated Nachen, where all visitors can act as their own ferryman. In fact,
just a few centuries ago, when fixed bridges were scarce, shallow fords through
the rivers and good ferry berths were the determining fixed points for most traffic
routes. Names of towns and villages ending in "-furt" refer to this fact. The
citizens of Bad Sobernheim experienced in a rather curious way that at that time
even stone bridges did not necessarily guarantee problem-free near crossings,
shortly after they had completed their stone bridge over the Nahe in the years
1623-1626. After a violent storm, in which the Nahe had overflowed its banks and
flooded the surrounding land, the river looked for another bed and literally left
the new bridge out of water. Fortunately, we are largely immune to such surprises
today, even though the Nahe is still overflowing its banks, flooding meadows and
houses.
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Opening hours
The barefoot path is open from May till October, between the hours of 9:00 and
20:00. Dogs are not allowed.
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