Schaffhausen and the Rhinefall

Today was pretty awesome. We started off with a lovely breakfast and headed up to the very north of Switzerland, to see the Rhinefall, Schaffhausen, the fort that protected Schaffhausen (Munot?), and Therese’s other aunt. We started out at the Rhinefall, which is a lot larger than it looks from the riverbank. There are two major channels that the water crashes through and several smaller channels closer to river right. We took a boat out to the island between the two major channels, and from the top of the rock/island, we could see the tons more (small) drops that lead up to the falls. While I would guess that the river drops about 30m or so, it was a little tough to tell through the mist and huge tails at the bottom of the falls. After a sufficient amount of time crammed on a rock with a ton of other tourists, we took the boat back across the river and then took another boat to a trail that goes around the top of the falls. On the cliff beside the falls, there’s a castle dating to the 1500s, which now serves as some restaurants and a youth hostel (hostelling in a castle sounds like fun). The cloud cover had been on and off by the time we went for our brief walk, so, of course, it began to rain when we were at the farthest point of our jaunt.

We eventually got back to the car and drove into town. We strolled through the old part of town and ate lunch above a department store (hooray for fruits, oats, and salad). The town was gearing up for the 1^st of August (Swiss Confederacy Day or some such) by hanging banners belonging to each of the regions/groups that joined to become Switzerland. The sun came out for the afternoon and shoppers followed suit. We headed up to a fortress that provided housing for all the townspeople in case of medieval attack, and it was very pleasant. We had a nice view of the town, the old city wall, and the Rhine from the top. There was also (amusingly) a small herd of deer in the ring around the fortification.

Back in the city, we stopped by a cloister with a beautiful garden adjacent to an equally lovely protestant church (the first of the trip, I think). From there, it was back to the train and Zurich. We had a few hours to get chocolate, a Swiss watch (not originally part of the plan, but good for getting rid of francs), look (unsuccessfully) for “Swiss-looking” espresso cups, and grab a (tasty) beer. Packed this evening, and off tomorrow.