The High Rhein

After leaving Mette and Basel we soon discovered that Switzerland is expensive and that the Swiss franc is particularly strong at the moment. A very basic hotel costs much more than in Germany and France. Therefore, we've had three nights in a row in the tent. The Swiss campsites are all very good and are surprisingly cheap at around 17 euros. The weather has been hotter than normal for Switzerland and so rather than heading straight for the Alps and sweating up its steep roads we decided to follow the advice of one of Mette's friends and so we changed our planned route and stayed with the Rhein for a few days until the hot weather was due to get a bit cooler. This gave us the added advantage of being able to jump into the Rhein to cool off when we got overheated. The Rhein was surprisingly warm at about 21C considering it is fast flowing and comes from water in the Alps.

Ceiling of Bad Sackingen Cathedral

Phil obscuring the bridge in Laufenburg

Painted statue in Schaffhausen

Some of the notable small towns along this part of the Rhein that we cycled through were: Bad Sackingen (on the German side) with its historic covered wooden bridge over the Rhein and the impressive interior of the gothic cathedral. Laufenburg is an old town with two parts separated by the Rhein; the German part and the Swiss part. Schaffhausen has a domineering castle looking down at the rest of the old part of the town with many decorated building and statues.

Painted shop fronts in Stein am Rhein

Close-up in Stein am Rhein

Stein am Rhein is unusual with its many painted buildings in the centre of the old part of the town. The paintings are all very detailed and must take a lot of looking after! We did'nt see any graffiti here - I suppose it's difficult to compete. 



Cooling down in the Rhein

We have enjoyed following the Rhein. It runs wide and calm.The sides are lush and green so that sometimes it looks like the Amazon. You can sense the power of the Rhein both in history, by its location between different countries and by its physical presence.


The wide Rhein

Even so, we were awed by the "Rhein Fall". Although the fall is only 23m high, it is 150m wide, powerful and frightening. Just a short distance from the "Rhein Fall" we had swam happily unaware of the size of the fall upstream.



Cooling off by the spray of the "Rhein Fall"

 The "Rhein Fall" is the largest waterfall in Europe measured in terms of volume of water (600 m3 per second).