Rheinfall

When we arrived at the Rheinfall it was raining pretty heavily, so we went into the snack bar and got drinks and ate American favorite muffins while we waited for it to let up. While I bought tickets, Aunt P had a surprise: several men walked up to R and she started casually chatting with one of them. Not to worry, though, it was just a friend from school. It was one of her older friends from German class (a Canadian, not the infamous Colombian). 

Enjoying the view from the Schloss.

L loves walking on stairs, especially with Aunt P

It didn't take long for the rain to stop and we headed over to the Schloss above the falls where there are some displays and a model. R especially liked that the model included a flag of Canton Zurich. The main attraction of the Schloss might have been the views of the river and the falls. We didn't spend very long there.

After taking the glass elevator partway down the walkway by the falls we had to fold the stroller and carry it on the stairs. Aunt P took charge of L on those, of course. There were three levels of viewing areas.

Level one.

Farther down on level two we could walk through a small cave to a platform right next to the edge of the falls. It was unbelievably close. It felt like we could almost reach out and touch the water, but it might have been about eight feet away.

T couldn't wait to get down to level three, a platform hanging over the bottom of the falls.

A view of level three.

I love the look on L's face!

Here is a good view of the Schloss at the top of the hill, the elevator (the concrete vertical column in the middle of the picture), the walkway to level one to the left of the elevator column (you can spot the viewing area by the flagpole - R was glad to see the Zurich flag, just like in the model), and way on the bottom left is the level three platform. You can't see level two very well because it is kind of around the corner closer to the falls. On the bottom right is where we caught a boat across the river.

The girls and Aunt P and Uncle D took a short cruise which brought them very close to several places at the base of the falls, and which got them fairly wet. T wasn't at all interested, and L was asleep, so I stayed with them and bought them some fries.

When everyone got back from the cruise S was very eager to go again right away. P and D encouraged me to go with her while they watched the littles (and bought them more fries!) I'm glad I went because it was very cool.

Level three, seen from the boat

We got so close that all we could see was raging frothy water rushing at us and spray.