Trip to the Rheinfalls and Missing Madonna!

Last Saturday my friend, Dawn, and I decided to take a trip to the Rheinfalls (the largest waterfall in Europe-see previous posts!). This was my third visit to them but I’d never gone on the boat across to the middle and, since it was on my to-do list before I leave, I wanted to check it off! The weather was perfect!! Seriously, we couldn’t have asked for a better day to go.

We took our time getting up and around that morning and finally met around lunch time at Zürich HB (main train station). After taking a few minutes to organize her train ticket (I have one for the entire state of Zürich which got me there) we were on our way. We took two train connections to get there and finally arrived at the tiny station just down from the falls.

Because of the nice weather we weren’t the only ones around that day. There were so many tourists there, we were definitely in the minority as locals (at least that’s how I like to think of myself!). We walked along a bit of the scenic path, which I’d never been on before, and then down to the docks where we caught a boat to the other side of the Rhein River.

From the other side we were able to catch another boat that took out us out the middle of the falls. This was the bit I’d been waiting for! This was the thing I’ve wanted to do since I arrived in Switzerland two years ago! It is a bit intimidating when you are actually on the boat moving right into the largest waterfall in Europe, especially when you have an enormous fear of drowning, as I do. The water was so clear and beautiful. If I were a swimmer I might have been tempted to jump right in!

Our boat was filled to capacity and mostly with Italian tourists. That day, they were everywhere with their beautiful language and excess amounts of hair gel. Dawn and I decided that we’d sit right at the front of the boat and when it docked at the massive rocks in the middle of the falls we hurried to get off to be the first ones at the top. It turns out that this is not an advisable plan. First of all, there are about a bazillion stairs to climb to get there; secondly, everyone else is rushing up behind you and you feel a considerable pressure to make it to the top as quickly as possible…what a workout!! The worst bit of it all is the size of the platform at the top. I’d say about 10 people might fit comfortably up there. But, there were more like 30 packed up there on the day we went, with little more to hold you in than a few metal bars and they are flimsy at best! So taking pictures is difficult and posing in any sort of comfortable fashion was out of the question completely. The people after us, the last ones to get off the boat, had the best situation I think…they took their time and didn’t rush down for the next boat back to the river’s edge.

After the experience in the middle, we made our way back to the other side of the river to the viewing pavilion. I’ve been there before but Dawn hadn’t so it was a fun time taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine! All this took a few hours and by the end of it we were tired and hungry (and maybe a little bit sunburnt!). However, we had plans for the evening…(scoping out the Madonna concert near Zürich)…so we hurried back to my house for a quick dinner.

It turns out that Dawn and I aren’t very good with planning out our time. By the time we arrived at my house (food in hand, still uncooked!), we were only an hour out from the start time of the concert. We’d never make it in time, of this we were certain. So, we made the decision to stay in and watch movies at my house. And, well….that never happened either. Something I’m beginning to notice when I spend time with Dawn is that we never get the things done we want to get done because we are too busy talking…about life, work, the US…you name it, we’re gonna talk about it! So we did nothing all evening and it was perfectly lovely.

I do wish we could have made it for the concert scoping, though we weren’t planning to pay to get in so I’m not sure how much we’d have seen anyway. But, apparently there is a hill overlooking the outdoor concert area so hearing it would have been definitely possible and there was a very good chance of seeing it as well…ah well, sometimes things don’t work out and sometimes it’s even for the best.

Well, I’ve attached some pictures to this post of our time at the falls. Hope you all enjoy. I’ll be updating a little more frequently in a few weeks…this time from Eastern Europe. Megz and I leave for our trip to Turkey and Eastern Europe on September 27th. We will be gone for nearly two months, returning back to Switzerland on the 20th of November…should be an interesting experience, hope the money holds out! I’ll be accepting donations beginning next Monday…hehe…..

Love you all!

LuLu