Get up close and personal with Rheinfall
A boat tour is best way to experience the power of these falls
It had been a very wet spring. The sky had opened and showered the land with a very generous and wet bounty. Rivers all across Europe were raging, Paris was flooding and in southern Germany, the Rheinfall was roaring its mightiest tune in centuries.
The greatest waterfall in Europe at 244,490 litres per second, 150 metres wide and 23 metres high, the falls are a fantastic sight to see on a clear day. In heavy rain and dark clouds with the Rhine River running riot, it’s downright scary. So what better way to remember the sight than to see how close you could get?
Centuries ago, the falls powered a mill. The Rheinfall has always been under consideration for hydroelectric generation. But the economic value of the falls as a tourist attraction is far greater. Located on the Rhine River at the border with Switzerland, tourists come from all over Europe during the summer months to vacation here and take a spin on a riverboat under the falls.
There’s plenty to see. You can tour a medieval castle perched by the falls. There are viewing platforms with a spectacular view of the falls on both sides of the Rhine, reached only via steep and narrow stairs. There is an adventure park above the castle with ziplines and such, and a restaurant by the river in which to dine on the inevitable offerings of bratwurst and sauerkraut.
But, just like Niagara Falls in North America, the best adventure is to take a boat ride to get as close as possible and scare yourself half to death.
You have the option of three different boat tours, best described as soft, middle and hard. The soft one drifts up and down the river — boring.
The middle one goes right to the falls. In the middle of the river, there are islands and rocks that split up the waterfall into segments. One of the islands in the middle of the falls has a boat dock and stairs leading up to a small lookout with railings. Should you arrive in the middle of great flooding, that option will disappear, along with the island on which you could possibly dock.
But the third option is you can always take the boat tour that gets very close to the falls.
That tour loads from the south side of the Rhine and takes a semi-circular approach attack the savage current. Water is a heavy and powerful element. The boat, a long cigarshaped craft seating more than 50 people, chugs mightily against the torrent in a show of strength. Mist turns into a full-fledged shower.
You get very wet. The falls thunder. You begin to wonder if the captain is going to drive the craft right into the falls. The boat shakes. Nobody has said anything yet about wearing life jackets. You are very pleased when the boat suddenly turns and heads back toward the dock.
Fear is always fun when the fearful event is over. You nibble on bratwurst and sip a light German beer in the restaurant on the shore across form the falls and laugh.
Scary? No, not really. What’s that expression? “Not so funny when it happened?” Why, without the heaviest rainfall in years, it wouldn’t be thrilling at all, you say to your friends with a grin.
They can’t hear you thanks to the mighty thunder of the falls.
Michael McCarthy is a freelance writer and owner of mccarthy-travels.com.