Yatzecks Abroad: Rhine-o

Everybody was feeling well enough to go out and see some stuff, so we decided something a little closer to home would be better than a super-long train ride. We decided to go up to the German border and check out the Rhine Falls and afterwards maybe visit the little town of Stein-am-Rhein.

It was probably right around an hour and 20 minute train ride. I would probably tell you exactly, but I'm writing this post about 2 weeks late. Anyway, we got to Schloss Laufen, which is the little castley building that overlooks the falls, bought our tickets and headed down the steps to get a close look at the water. It was actually really impressive how powerful a waterfall it was. There are several different platforms/observation decks that you can stop at along the way, and the kids liked going to each. They were asking lots of questions about this waterfall in relation to other things (Niagara Falls, the river I went whitewater rafting on, etc) so we will count this as an educational field trip I think :)

We got down to the boat launch where people can take a boat to the restaurant on the other side of the river, or even go out into the heart of the falls where stands a pinnacle of rock, and upon that rock a stairway to a platform placed at the acme. We didn't have any cash to get on the boat, and I was feeling a bit worn out from all my expulsions from the previous night, so we headed back up to the castle area. I kept Katie and Mary with me at the little play area, and Melis pulled out some cash at an ATM and took Joey and Lily to the pinnacle. I brought the girls over to one of the platforms at just the right time, because they had arrived at the impossible island and I snapped a couple pictures.

After they got back we hopped the train to go to Stein-am-Rhein. But actually, the train we boarded was heading the wrong way! We considered just going home, but Melissa really wanted to see the town. So we disembarked the train at the next station and had to wait about 30 minutes for the correct train. We took this correct train to the little village, even though many things were going to be closed. Stein-am-Rhein sounded cool because a large portion of the town is pedestrian-only, and lots of the building facades are hand painted with murals and cool scenes. We ate some gelato along the way while stopping in a bunch of different buildings and churches and exploring for a while, but everyone started getting hungry and the restaurants were stinkin' expensive. We had seen a little Indian pizza/burger shop before crossing the bridge into town, so we headed there. The prices were good and everyone ordered pizza, so we ended up waiting for about 25 minutes for them to bake. We had 10 minute walk to the train station and less than 10 minutes to catch the next train, so we hauled some serious ass and just caught it! We enjoyed our pizza on the train ride home, and got into Pfaffikon around 9pm.

PICTURE DUMP!