Ali – Our Saturday tradition (all of 4 weeks old) is to go for a hike. So, drawing again from the 32 most enjoyable Swiss hikes, we headed to a 14 km hike that took us past the Rheinfall. We picked this hike because it was only an hour away, the Rheinfall was on our hit list, and lastly but most importantly, the trail was flat and doable for our out-of-shape American bodies. The hike began in Schaffhausen, which boasts an imposing 16th century fortress (Munot Fortress) that I dragged the family up many flights of stairs to see. Just as Maya was complaining about having to see a dumb fortress and why couldn’t we just go to the hike, we reached the moat, which was occupied by what I assumed must be highly trained attack deer guarding the fortress. I think the moat standard is water plus maybe a man-eating crocodile but the wily Swiss apparently go with innocent-looking deer. I assume they got the idea from Monty Python and the Holy Grail Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.
After the Fortress we started on our hike following the Rhein. The hike meandered through some vineyards and thorny blackberry bushes, on which we left skin and blood in exchange for delicious blackberries.
After an hour or so we reached the Rheinfall, purportedly Europe’s largest waterfall. We also seemed to reach half of Europe’s current tourist population. We jostled around a thicket of tourist humanity to view the falls, which were impressive but I think objectively less awe-inspiring than Niagra. However one can take a boat to a large rock outcropping in the middle of the falls and stand with a subgroup of humanity above the falls getting modestly drenched waiting for the next boat. We opted not to do that.
I took advantage of the sudden wealth of bathrooms to take a pit stop and was greeted with my favorite Swiss sign aimed at tourists. You might look at the picture and be tempted to say this is aimed at third-world visitors who are unaccustomed to the luxury of toilets but note the sign is written in English….here’s looking at you Americans.
After the Rheinfall, the wanderweg (hiking trail) hugged the Rhein and continued downriver. Maya and I noted quite a few flights of steps leading into the river and, after seeing a swimsuit-clad couple climb in, promptly stripped down to bathing suits (which we have learned are essential items to carry to every destination) and dove in. The swift current carried us downstream faster than Joe, hauling everyone’s gear while filming us, could walk. We climbed out at the next Schwimmbad (of course there would be a schwimmbad within 100 feet of us because schwimmbadi are as common here as Royal Farms in Baltimore) and recommenced our hike, which was about 2/3 over.
The last segment wound through the woods above the river and Maya got great rock-throwing practice and trail-sprinting practice. I got to bust out my new trekking poles, which Maya said made me look 90 years old and she proceeded to call me ‘grandma’ for a while. At last we reached Rheinau where we found a monastery and guys carrying large horns. The wanderweg conveniently ends at a restaurant that specializes in ice cream and sits 1 minute walk from our bus back to the train station.
We had totaled 32,000 steps for the day and around 13 miles when we ended our trip back in Zurich, all feeling like that was about our American endurance limit. While you may be tempted to think that all this fresh air and hiking is good for our health, I should note that the Abrahams are actually apparently slightly allergic to fresh air and exercise. Joe has developed his first ever bout of seasonal hay fever and is covered with a roving rash that pops up on random body parts. Maya has a nice European cold, which means every sneeze sounds like a phrase in German. I have developed my first ever eye sty, despite being a veteran contact wearer who should be immune to any known germ after years of cleaning my contacts with saliva (yeah, gross, but occasionally necessary). So it’s not all glaciers and pastries here in Switzerland.