Rhine Falls
This past weekend we finally took a train trip out of Zürich! Both of us had signed up for the half-price fare cards, so we put them right to use. We were looking for somewhere we could go in about an hour, spend some time, and come back. Google told me that Rhine Falls was that place. It told Cass some place different, but I won!
It was about an hour train ride, part of which was through Germany. We wouldn’t have even known it except that Cass’s cell phone plan sent him a “Welcome to Germany” (well, probably “Willkommen in Deutschland”) text. He looked on Google locations to see why, and we had briefly crossed the border at Jestetten.
Rhine Falls has 2 train stops to choose from - Neuhausen am Rheinfall or Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall. They are on opposite sides of the Rhine River from each other. Schaffhausen is the nearest town. On the way there, we took an IC train (inter-city) which is the express type train with few stops. We had to go all the way to Schaffhausen, then take another train back to Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Apologies up front - I wasn’t great at taking pictures on this trip because the scenery was too cool. I’ll work on it.
When you get off the train ta Neuhausen am Rheinfall, you walk right down a pathway to the viewing area. It’s really quite convenient. These are the pictures from that area. On the other side at Schloss Laufen, there are boats that you can get on, and they will take you out to that spot in the middle where there are stairs to climb up on the big rock. That was a hard pass for me.
The river used to power a working mill, so. the paddle wheel is still there.
Really, there isn’t much to say except that the pictures speak for themselves. Actually, it’s way cooler in person because the noise that the water makes is quite powerful. We walked about halfway around to the other side and ate at an Italian restaurant, which was really good. It was called PiPaPo, and I had the bolognese with rigatoni. Cass had pizza with prosciutto. (sorry no pics!)
We caught a train back directly from Neuhausen am Rheinfall. This one was not an IC, so we stopped at every little town along the way. It was interesting to see the countryside. (again, sorry no pics!) Trip total - 11.60 CHF for the outbound trip, 4.90 + 5.40 CHF for the return trip - on our half-fare cards, of course.
Next time, we will probably try to do an overnight trip somewhere in Switzerland. I really, really want to go further up in the mountains before it gets too cold.