Rheinfalls

This morning we decided to tick one more thing off our Swiss bucket list. But we were rather lacking in energy, so we took what we suspected would be a relaxed trip to the Rhinefalls.

The Swiss town of Schaffhausen (near the German border) grew around the Rhinefalls waterfall because the river was impassable for traveling trade ships.  The waterfall is the largest in Europe (when measured by volume of water output), and it is, indeed, massive and beautiful, even to a girl who grew up visiting Niagra Falls.

The view from behind the falls

We approached the waterfall by train: the station is halfway up the hill pictured above, and the train continues through a tunnel into the rock. We've gone by these waterfalls on train a couple of times, now, and we decided that glimpse was much too brief.

From the train stop we scrambled downhill to the boat docks, where tourist skiffs constantly set sail for a trip to the rocks in the middle of the falls (where those tourists are standing in the above picture), or for a cruise around the lower Rhine, or just for a straight shot across the river.

With our short-attention-span co-travelers, we chose the last of these. It surely would have been fun to get off on the rocks in the middle of the falls, but it's a long and steep climb, the water was really spraying high. It looked like a loud and intense place.

The full Rhinefalls: visitors can be dropped off by boat onto the center rock in the falls.

So I think we made the right decision for our crew. The ride was a perfect length, short enough that the kids were sorry to see it end. They were especially amused by all of the fish that had collected at the base of the waterfalls.  The falls are much too massive for most fish to climb, and so they congregate in the stiller waters, particularly by the docks.

Especially since the tourists are encouraged to feed the fish: in the restaurant where we had our lunch, they had a paper bag stashed in the corner, filled with old dry bread crusts, marked "Fische Futtern." I scooped up a handful and we all had fun tossing them into the water (along with Alex's spare french fries, which he donated to the good of the cause), watching the fish leap and battle for them.

Alex, feeding the fish

We had our lunch in a counter-service restaurant with peculiar food, a mixture of American-style Chinese, fried chicken, and Swiss sausages. It was catering, I suppose, to the many different groups of tourists that also flow through the falls each day.  As Dennis put it, "the falls were so touristy that there were even people from Illinois there."

We were speculating on what routes these tour groups might be taking. We've seen fewer groups of tourists that I'd expect in Switzerland. I think most of them go to Lucerne or the high Alps; perhaps these groups are touring the nearby Black Forest, with tour guides using the Rhinefalls as an opportunity for a token dip into Switzerland.

Regardless, one of the great benefits of going to a touristy place in Switzerland–apart from being able to purchase a painted cowbell of any given size, or an elaborate cuckoo clock, or a knife–is the racks and racks of attraction brochures.

Wheee!

Apart from the falls, the best thing I saw today was this brochure for cow trekking: an opportunity to ride a saddled cow through muddy farmlands.  And my favorite picture in that brochure is here, to the right: a group of those innocent tourists, stranded in a lake, at the mercy of their thirsty cows.  Ninety minutes will only cost you 90 francs, per person, please.

A little break on our hike around the falls.

Another great part of visiting a tourist destination is that you can count on a playground or two. We found one near our restaurant, where the children ran after we finished feeding the fish and played while Dennis and I drank coffee and watched the water and the world go by.  From there we took a short walk up the edge of the Rhine, climbing up to the top of the falls and over a bridge crossing the upper river.

Crossing the railroad bridge, over the upper river

It was sort of a long walk, but there all of the maps promised a second playground on the other side of the river, very near where we started, so we dangled that liberally in front of the kids.

The castle right next to the playground, Schloss Laufen, is now home to a restaurant and a youth hostel.  Perched right over the falls it has to be one of the best-located hostels I've ever heard of.

All those long logs were connected on hinges, so that they pivoted as you walked across them.  Crazy-fun!

My living statues.

 We exited through the castle courtyard, where there were some living statues.  Alex immediately realized what a sweet deal they had going, and did a little busking of his own in the train station, with Joey trustingly mimicking him.  Unfortunately, the only thing the boys collected was some amused glances.

I haven't mentioned much about Joey's toilet training escapades, large as they've been looming in my days, lately, but Joey did this entire trip today without a diaper.  In fact, I noted to Dennis that it had been at least four days since he'd had any sort of accident.  And while I kept Ella and Alex in nighttime diapers for at least a year after they were toilet trained, I haven't put a diaper on Joey at night, yet. And I haven't regretted it...yet.

So this evening I told Dennis that I was calling it. Joey was officially TOILET TRAINED.

And within five minutes of making that joyful declaration, and toasting to newfound freedom, I found it necessary to rinse out not one, but two pairs of pants. I suspect Joey overheard my celebration. He might have a bit of a Peter Pan syndrome.

So I guess I'm uncalling it.