Hello everyone!
It’s the last day of week number one and we are about to “conquer” two new countries today. First we’re in plan to visit Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen in Switzerland and then move further to Meersburg in Germany. And last but not least, chill by the Bodensee for a little bit. It’s gonna be an exciting day today since I’ve never been to any of those places unlike those we visited during previous days, I’m really excited! Let’s begin!
The second you arrive to Schaffhausen, you’re overwhelmed by a beautiful scenery. I’ve never seen any waterfalls live in my life, I honestly couldn’t believe my own eyes! There are two ways to experience this beauty. Either you go on a walk and eventually get above the falls from where you can see a castle, viaduct and river from upwards, or you can take a boat tour. There are three options as well. Either you pay 3 CHF (approximately 3€) and the boat will take you to the other side from where you can ascend the castle, or you can pay 7 CHF (approximately 7€) and the boat will take you on a 15 minutes long tour around the lower part of the river and below cascades. Finally, if you pay 20 CHF (approximately 20€), the boat will take you to a special outlook right in the middle of the falls. Me and a couple of my friends decided to take up the option number two and let me tell you, it was amazing. But I have to warn you, you’ll get to close to the cascades that you’ll be entirely wet afterwards, so don’t forget to take a rain coat or something when you’re visiting this place! I didn’t expect this, so not only I was completely wet, but also my camera was, and hence I couldn’t really photograph much since my lenses were absolutely useless like that. But it’s an amazing experience whatsoever. Since we’ve got only 45 minutes for this place, we had to hurry, but I’m gonna tell you about one thing I noticed here. The prices! Believe it or not, common hot dog costed 16.80 CHF (16,80€)!! Basic souvenirs were also ridiculously expensive, for instance basic magnet costed 9.90 CHF (9.90€). Plus, another positive thing about this place is that toilets are incredibly clean and free here. I’ve honestly never been to a place with facilities like these. But you know, it’s Switzerland, I could expect all of this. When we got into the bus, I asked some of my friends who decided to take a walk instead how it was and they showed me some photos. Honestly, I started to regret my decision to go on a boat tour a little bit, their shots looked absolutely gorgeous! Their scenery was definitely better than ours with that viaduct, castle and falls from upwards, but on the other hand….you cannot experience such thing as floating right underneath the cascade every day! So at the end I calmed down and was actually pretty happy about the fact that we chose this. All in all, I think this place should definitely be on everyone’s bucket list. Plus, I recommend you to reserve more time for this so you can see the scenery and experience this magnificent place from both sides. And if you feel like spending a day here, maybe even four sides if you decided to climb up the outlook and castle as well.
Next place on our list is Meersburg, located only about 1.5 hours away in Germany ashore Bodensee, which is a natural border between Germany and Switzerland in this area. Meersburg is divided into two parts. One is slightly bit older and it’s located on steep slope of a hill. Second one is a typical tourist summer resort with lovely promenade and attractive beaches.
First we decided to take up the older part. It’s a picturesque village with typical German architecture, reminding me personally of Rothenburg ob der Tauber which I’ve always wanted to visit. There are situated two castles, both inhabited. Did you knew that Meersburg is the only place where people actually live in these old castles? You can actually pay and have a guided tour around these castles, but since we got only 3 hours for the entire town until our bus was supposed to leave, we just visited the castle yard which offers magnificent view over the lower part of the town and Bodensee, and then we got a dinner.
Now let me tell you about this dinner. On the way up we found an attractive Asian restaurant with incredibly low prices situated on the right on the main street. On the way down we visited it, and it was the best investition of the entire week for me. I got number 46 – crispy chicken in spicy sauce with vegetables and let me tell you…ahh, it was so yummy, literal foodgasm. I love Asian food and I get something Asian everywhere I am and this was the second best I’ve ever got. Staff was very friendly, they offered us menu in various languages since outside there was one only in some Asian language, and meals were prepared very quickly. Let alone their taste, so delicious! Overally I’ll give this restaurant 9/10 only because it was really small and there were no toilets although the cashier was so nice to show us where we can find toilets nearby. I highly recommend this place!
Being absolutely content and fully, we continued downhill to the coastal part of the town. There was this long promenade by the shore with many cafés, patisseries, restaurants and souvenir shops. At the end of the promenade there is a pier and a port, from where you can also take a boat tour around the lake. I talked to some of my friends who we met while promenading, they were sitting in this high-end restaurant (honestly, all stores here looked high-end) and they told us that even though their meals were very tasty, they felt like they are paying this much only because of the location, they basically had Bodensee right before their eyes. That aforementioned Asian bistro is quite cramped and you can’t see anything from there, but anyway, do not regret going there, I think it really pays off. I mean, such meal for only 6.50€? Woah. That’s really cheap considering that we’re in Germany. All in all, I think Meersburg is a pretty interesting town that you should definitely visit when you’re wandering around. As for me, I really enjoyed walking up and down the promenade because of the lovely sunny and warm weather, but the upper part of the town was really something to write home about, I loved it. I don’t know how are those other town around Bodensee like, but when you’re deciding to go there, I’d recommend you to choose this town since it offers much more than only beaches and water fun.
These were the last stops on our trip this week. Next week I’m gonna be travelling around Slovakia with one Cypriot girl, so expect a lot of new daily articles!
Have a great day!
Asequibles 