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Hello again,
After one week of great weather in Zurich, it has been rainy for the past 2 days. Hope it gets better at least for the weekend.
I guess I am really spoiled with California's weather that I do not need to check the weather forecast there for almost all year long.
Anyhow, this weekend on Saturday, Peter and I went to see the Rhine falls (or in German Rheinfall).
Apparently, this water fall is the largest onel in the Europe. Being in Zurich (just 45 minutes by train) and not seeing it once, that would be a shame.
Everything was nice on Saturday.
We took the train to get to the city called "SCHAFFHAUSEN".
This city is the capital of the canton with the same name in the northern part of the Switzerland.
The trip took almost 40 minutes. Although a lot of people in the trains read books or magazines, I guess it is a bit early for me to do so and miss the fantastic view outside. Right now, since I am used to the Tram which takes me from home to ETHz, I feel the need to read something to get there. That would give
me 15 minutes one way. I may talk about reading on the trams and trains in a separate post.
I am just deviating from the main topic.
Anyhow, we arrived in the station in Schaffhausen. The station was right next to the Rhine river. That gave us a pleasant 20 minutes riverwalk to the Rhinefalls. Yes! River walks again! And I am so excited. Wild water and the nice natural green area at both sides were amazing.
(Again to show off my hometown, the area reminded me of Bagh-Bahadoran area located upstream of Zayanderood-the river flowing in Esfahan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaindeh_Rud )
I guess as far as I see rivers, I want to compare them with the one my hometown. You have to be patient with this part though! :-)
When we got to the point with the actual falls, one could notice a big rocky island. The water force obviously has worn out a big part of it. You might be able to notice it from the picture. The falls were not that high. But the water flux was too much. I should admit that I have not been to Niagara falls yet. So, I can not really compare the
biggest European waterfalls to Niagara falls yet.
There were some boats which took different routes from the shore to the island and back. All of them would get as close as possible to the falls. That was amazing when we were on the boat and could feel the water spray in the air. The power of nature was so adorable.
You gotta feel it yourself. There is no way of describing it.
In the little rocky island, there was a very steep and narrow stairway to the top which only few people could stand there for some seconds.
Almost everyone would stay on the very top for 1 minute or so, took pictures and then head back to catch the next boat (or ferry if you call it that way).
We headed back to the station. There is a famous castle in the city called "Der Munot" from the 16th century. We decided to see that one too. Expecting a lot of steps to climb up (what I read online before going there), luckily we got there from a different entrance. That way we only had to go up 80 steps, while the other way should have been
Munot
Peter 250!
The helix shaped passage went all the way to the top. You could see all the signs and love symbols posted by people on the walls. There were some cuts in the walls which had wonderful views over the city and also the Rhine river.
On the top, there were two cannons located on one edge. It seemed that there would be a ceremony coming up since some musical band and instruments were being setup.
And old lady and her daughter hesitantly asked us where we were from. Saying that we were studying in California, she responded "Oh, we are from US too" (and did not give me time to say that I was originally from Iran!). She was Swiss but she had been living in US for 30 years.
I asked her daughter is she knew Swiss-German (since it is much harder to learn it on your own). And she said yes. The lady said that her daughter was supposed to work on a farm in Switzerland for this summer. That way, she could really practice her Swiss-German.
Good luck! :-)
The area and the city was really nice, calm and relaxing. No much crowded
Rhine Fall
Which way to go?? at all. (comparing to Zurich ofcourse).
Oh, I forgot to say that in the station while we were waiting for the train to go to Munot, an old man started the converstaion with us.
Well, no English. Only German.
Another chance to practive my German. The good thing about it was that he was talking very slow. That way I had time to do some math in my head to realize what he was trying to say.
It was interesting. Just knowing our nationalities, the first thing that hit his mind was some political subjects.
USA for Peter, and he said "Obama Gut!". And he asked where Obama was from.
I wonder what he would have told Peter if he came to Swizterland at a different time, e.g. last year! :-)
Now my turn, Iran for me.
I guess we have been on the headlines for the past two weeks or so. He said he was suprised to see me as an Iranian here.
But he said he likes Iranian students very much. I guess that was a bonus for me.
But then he started talking about midddle east and bla bla bla which I did not know his points.
Just nodding helps sometimes! Right?
Then he tried to ask where I learned German. He was suprised when I said I learned it back in US.
Anyhow, that was an interesting experience too.
Another interesting thing that happened was when we tried to take the train back to Zurich.
I guess if the Swiss system only fails once in year, that should be when Peter and MoMo are sitting and waiting for their Train. :-) Kidding.
Apparently, we were in sitting on the right platform. But, there was 2-3 times announcements saying that our Train is arriving in a different platform and we had to go to a different one.
I realized that my German is still not good enough to understand those announcements. :-)
We were a bit suspicious though and tried the other platform. But, the Swiss system works fine here, i.e. the train was sharp on time. Dang! if we had only one more minute, we would have caught the train...
Anyhow, we missed the train and had an extra hour. The good thing about the tickets here is that it is not for a certain hour. You could use it during the whole day. That's
Rhine falls,
My friend Peter why we decided to go back and have some dinner.
What? Pizza!!! No more info.
Not much happened on the way back.
I will try to see if I can put a video here. Hopefully it works.
If you have any questions or any interesting point, please do not hesitate to comment. I would be glad to share my experience with you people.
Be back soon,
Momo
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Ásdís
non-member comment
Largest waterfall?
well it depends on what you consider largest;) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dettifoss