Blog #3: Waterfalls and Castles

Blog #3: Schaffhausen, Switzerland Day Trip (5/15/2005)

This trip was a nice diversion from Zurich. There is a little town about 40 minutes north of Zurich by train named Schaffhausen. There are a couple neat attractions there: one of the largest waterfalls in Europe and about a 15th century castle. So who went on this trip? So a Romanian guy, a Romanian girl, a Russian-Lithuanian girl, a French girl, a French guy, a Portuguese girl, a Turkish-Swede girl, a Lithuanian guy and three ballerinas (no, I’m not joking): one Japanese, an Aussie and a French-speaking Romanian-Canadian walked into a bar. The bartender says, “Hey, where’s the parrot?” Now that’s the start of a good joke. Anybody have a punch line for me?

It was about a 40 minute walk to the falls, but that was less a function of distance and more a function of girls who whine and walk too slow. It was a nice walk, however, and the sights more than made up for the effort. I was blown away by the view. I’m a picture-taking fool, so I went crazy. So crazy that my battery (on my new camera) died after lunch and I missed some really great pictures.

We started with a few pictures of the group and the fall before walking over a bridge to the pay side of the river. Unlike most everything else in Switzerland, this was a rather affordable event. From the people who brought you the 12 Swiss Franc (CHF) side of fried rice, we have a 1 CHF walk down a path taking us in almost direct contact with the fall. Sure it was crowded with tourists, but that is probably why it is so inexpensive. We took a nice path winding back and forth down this cliff, progressively getting closer and closer to the spray and rushing water. It was quite beautiful, really. My pictures cannot do it justice, but you may get an idea.

You can check out the pictures of the falls here: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2126663486&code=16043938&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite

From the riverside we paid for a boat across the river. The total price of the rides was 6.50 CHF, another miraculous feat in a country where the minimum wage is 20 CHF (roughly $17) an hour. When I learned about their minimum wage, it was clear why a McDonald’s meal is $10 and any real food is $30 plus. Once across the river, we had a picnic lunch, were assaulted by these crazy picture-takers, listened to the Native Americans playing music who just happened to wander across the pond and end up by this river at the same time we were, and learned that one of the talented members of our group can juggle. All in all, it was an educational lunch experience.

After lunch was the cool part. Let me emphasize, again, that Chad has no camera at this point. We took a boat out to the center of the fall where there is a large rock jutting out of the middle of the river. The boat fights the current, docks, and unloads passengers to trek up the steep stairs for an absolutely amazing view of the fall. It was an awesome, albeit wet, experience.

The climax of our day trip over, we decided to visit this old castle on the top of the hill. Yet again we (by “we” I mean the royal “we”) were amazed at the absolutely free entry into this castle. It was simple, but it has a large hall that you would imagine could be filled with smoke, tables and dogs fighting for dinner scraps. This view was only had after a climb up the hill that quite effectively took the wind out of me. I really need to get in shape.

Instead of stairs there was a spiral ramp to the top of the tower, above the hall. There is a large open area, apparently for performances and entertainment, and spectacular views of the town and up and down the river valley. Again: no camera. I need to go back for a few hours and remedy this miscalculation of battery use.