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Travelogue Rhine Falls Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Photo Album & Video

  Photo Album Rhine Falls
  Video Rhine Falls (12 MB)

External Links

• Rhine Falls Schaffhausen [www.rheinfall.ch]
• Schaffhauserland [www.schaffhauserland.ch]

Zurich Weather

A long week-end and beaming sunshine – ideal conditions for an excursion to Switzerland! A sightseeing tour through Zurich has always been high on the list. And while we are in the Zurich area, the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen are worth a stopover, anyway. The main goal of our tour, however, is Lake Constance. There, we want to stay for one or two days to enjoy the panoramic view.

Rhine Falls – Largest Plain Waterfalls in Europe

[Thur, 23 Aug 2007] — As the idea to go on an excursion has come spontaneously, we have no concrete notion how our itinerary will look like. Just one thing is clear: we want to see the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen. And we like to stop in Zurich. For our first night’s stay we have booked a hotel on the German shore of Lake Constance. Everything else remains to be seen …

At 9 am we head for the highway A 81 towards Singen. About an hour later we reach the German-Swiss border at Bietingen – Thayngen. We buy a motorway tax sticker (CHF 40) at a service station and drive on to the Rhine Falls. The falls are located on the High Rhine between the municipalities of Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen, near the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland, between the canton of Schaffhausen (right bank) and the canton of Zurich (left bank).

We reach the parking lot of Laufen Castle at 11 am. At the cash desk in the souvenir shop an elderly lady relieves us of the admission fee of CHF 1. Then we may descend the stairs that lead to the observation deck of the Rhine Falls. With every step we take, the deafening noise of the flood of water, plunging over the rocks, gets louder. Once we reach the observation deck, the thunder of this terrific wonder of nature has swollen to a noise level that precludes any conversation.

The Rhine Falls were formed in the last ice age, approximately 14,000 to 17,000 years ago. They are the largest plain waterfalls in Europe. It is true that they are half as high as the Dettifoss Falls in Iceland, but they carry the double amount of water. At a width of 150 m (450 ft) and a height of 23 m (75 ft) the average water flow is 250 m³ per second in the winter months; in the summer, the average water flow rises up to 600 m³ per second.

Anyone wanting to experience this spectacle first hand, should book a boat tour over the 13 m (43 ft) deep pothole and climb the middle rock, at the flanks of which the flood of water roars into the depth.

We give the boat tour a miss and proceed to Zurich …