Rheinfall

Bonus midweek blog!



A few times this summer Marianne has suggested we go to see the Rheinfall and I heard Mariana say that it was worth seeing. Finally, we decided that it was a good evening to go. Marianne and family went to Italy for a few weeks and left us the car again. We tried to find anyone else who wanted to ride along on the half hour drive to Neuhausen am Rheinfall, but nobody at our place wanted to go.

I had heard claims that the Rheinfall is the biggest waterfall in Europe. When I first heard that statement I wondered what it meant exactly. Tallest waterfall? Nah, Schmadrachfalle (from our last trip) was definitely taller. Most water? Widest? I'm not exactly sure, but I bet it means it is the waterfall with the most volume of water.



The waterfall, or series of falls, occurs at a bend of the Rhein River. The Rhein begins in Switzerland and makes up part of the border between Switzerland and Leichtenstein, Austria and Germany. Later the Rhein makes up about half of the border between Germany and France. Finally it flows through the Netherlands and into the North Sea. In the Netherlands it splits and one part becomes the IJssel [sic], which separates Zwolle and Hattem. These seemingly insignificant towns are where Bryan used to live and went to school, respectively, during his semester in the NED. But enough geography that few beside me really care about.

Back to the falls. I was not expecting them to be quite as big and I was quite impressed. After a little bit of research, we found that they are approximately half as tall with 10% of the volume as Niagara Falls. But I've never seen that and Bryan and I agreed that these were easily the biggest we've ever seen. To add to the experience, the evening was very calm and the peaceful warm weather contrasted nicely with the roaring falls. There was a time where we stared into the falls, mesmerized as if they were a fire.

There isn't really much to write about our quick trip to the falls. Sometimes I think maybe we should just post a link to the pictures instead of writing, because really, they tell the whole story.