Day trip: Schaffhausen and the Rhine Falls

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed north to the Rhine Falls (Rheinfall in German). It’s one of those places that has been on our we-should-get-around-to-going-there-someday list for quite a while, so the trip gave us a nice sense of accomplishment, too.

We took the train to Schaffhausen and wandered around the town a bit in the morning. It’s a small Swiss German town with hit-or-miss quaintness (depending on which street you happen to be walking down at any particular moment) but a generally pleasant and lively old-town atmosphere.

After lunch at the cozy Wirtschaft zum Frieden (which will be closed from October 2006 until January 2007), we started out on the 45-minute hike along the Rhine to the falls. The hike was enjoyable and took us through a couple small towns as well as some forest areas.

We arrived at Schloss Laufen, a castle overlooking the falls, and then paid a franc each for the privilege of hiking down to the edge of the water while enjoying various views of foamy water crashing down around distinctive rock formations. The falls themselves were less exciting than I had imagined, but still worth a visit.

We crossed the river by boat, took a quick bus from Neuhausen back to Schaffhausen, and enjoyed a drink by the water at Rheinhotel Fischerzunft. We decided their dinner menu was a bit too steep for our budget, so we headed back into town to the restaurant Kronenhof. We had a fantastic meal and I can’t recommend this place enough – it was one of the best vegetarian meals I have had in Switzerland, and the meat-eaters were pretty happy with their food, too. Props to our Fodor’s Switzerland guidebook for finding us good eats twice in one day.