Schaffhausen And The Rheinfall Waterfalls

Report of a day trip to Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and to the most powerful waterfall in Europe, the Rheinfall waterfalls.
2015-07-04 – ⁠2023-10-01 finished

A few weeks ago we visited Schaffhausen, a Swiss canton capital near the German border.

Our first stop were the Rheinfall waterfalls, just a couple of train stops away from Schaffhausen. The falls sounded like airplane turbines and the narrow trails leading from the castle on top to the observatory points were packed. Despite all this it was easy to let nature captivate you and keep staring at its sheer power.

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Our next stop was Shaffhausen itself. We first visited the old town and enjoyed strolling on clean cobblestone streets with tunnels and medieval elements all around.

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Facades had vibrant colors and ancient structures were resting instead of falling apart. Shops and other modern elements had been elegantly added to the ancient. What caught my attention, though, were the many house fronts that proudly claimed their old age like the one below which dates back to 1653.

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One of the main tourist attractions is the Munot, a circular fortification that dates back to the 16th century. After climbing up the steep ramp in its main tower we were rewarded with this view:

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And on the way down we peeked at the basement:

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The memories I collected from this place will definitely be used as inspiration for my D&D games.

Our last noteworthy stop was the All Saints Abbey. The former Benedictine monastery was holding some sort of event involving firemen and food but that’s all I could tell. On our way out a good-looking tall, blond and slender bearded man with two kids said “hi” to me. I replied “Hi”. Then he asked “Did you know that God loves you?” I then politely replied what you shouldn’t reply in these cases “Oh, really? I didn’t know.” He then proceeded to enlighten me. After several minutes of increasingly rude attempts to escape while keeping a smile on my face I managed to flee and meet my mom, who had shamefully left me behind and was taking pictures.

In summary Schaffhausen felt like a quiet and quaint corner full of history.

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