A Swiss Trip - Part 1: Schaffhausen

 

In whatever survey you look, Switzerland is always at or near the top - certainly top 6.  Wealth: check.  Happiness: of course. Scenery: beyond a doubt.  Cost of living: oh, yeah.  Health and well-being: yep, that too.

It's no surprise really.  With its alpine south and arable north, this relatively small landlocked nation is possibly the most beautiful and scenic country on the planet - certainly amongst those I've visited.  Its climate helps: warm summers with plenty of sunshine in which to enjoy its scenic beauty, and cold snowy winters that give that same place a complete contrast. The lush green mountain valleys disappear under a blanket of snow, the forest parks on the lower slopes close to the German border carry a patina of frost.  And throughout the year its superb transport system carries on its public service with that legendary clockwork efficiency.

It is certainly a wealthy country.  Remaining neutral during both World Wars must have helped. since it was able to remain financially in the black, as opposed to the bankruptcy faced by so many of its European neighbours, notably Italy, Germany, France and Britain.  It cannily provided a private banking service to anyone with the wherewithal to pay for its guarantees of security and secrecy, and does so to this day.  Stroll around Geneva or Zurich in particular, in Luzern and Zug and Basel to a lesser extent and you will be rubbing shoulders with smartly dressed bankers among the best paid in the world, and admiring the Porsches and Bentleys and Ferraris cruising the city streets, while window shopping in the expensive boutiques and jewellers and watchmakers that line the pavements.  Possibly musing idly about how you could (legally) join their numbers.....I know I do.

Adding to this opulence are the multinational organizations clustered around the shores of Lake Leman (more generally known as Lake Geneva).  The city houses the European headquarters for the United Nations and World Health Organization, amongst other world and international bodies (many affiliated to the UN), with the headquarters of UEFA (football's European governing body) a 10 minute train ride along the lake in Lausanne, along with that of the International Olympic Committee.  

But even out of these major cities, in the smaller cities and towns and even those Alpine villages, the Swiss people look and act as if they do not have a care in the world - which of course is not the case because everyone, no matter how fit and healthy and wealthy, has their problems. Excellent healthcare provision and pensions no doubt make a positive difference, as does that high quality of public service, whether on the trains and buses and trams, in the shops and restaurants, the leisure facilities or that beautiful countryside. Of course taxes are higher than in many other places, and spread between national taxes, Canton taxes and individual city taxes, as well as indirect taxes like VAT, but higher wages offset that somewhat and make them well worthwhile.  At least in my humble opinion.....

A couple of examples illustrate this last paragraph, based on my observations during a trip I made there a couple of years ago: I have no doubt there have been no material changes since then.  First, I have never, anywhere, seen as many healthy looking and fit elderly people in my life.  I was staying in Schaffhausen, a smallish town on the German border about 50km north east of Zurich and my walks around the town and its surrounding parkland (of which more shortly) tired me out - and I consider myself to be a relatively fit and healthy OAP.  But sitting beside the river Rhine, enjoying an ice cream and enjoying the sunshine, I was very struck by the number of deeply suntanned and white-maned pensioners pedalling past on mountain bikes, laden with panniers of baggage, chattering and laughing happily in groups of two and three or more.  Another day, I walked about 6 km downstream to the Rhein Fall (apparently the biggest waterfall in Europe), the final approach to which is up a quite steep foot- and cycle-path that offers some spectacular viewing points. As I laboured, sweating and panting, up the slope, I was regularly passed by these oldies, cycling happily in low gear, hardly breaking sweat. 

Second, the leisure facilities offered in the town were exceptional.  There were a number of parks, including one close to where I was staying that contained a floodlit football pitch and running track with a large exercise area (parallel bars, walkers and the like) that were in daily use by local clubs or groups of friends to keep fit, at nominal cost.  Close to it was a similar but larger park that offered a running track, high- and long-jump pits as well as a pole vault area and another for shot, discus and javelin training.  It also housed a small snack counter and bar selling a rather fine locally brewed IPA. I was told the facilities had been built and paid for and maintained out of the local tax levy - and well worth the money I would suggest.

Third, I purchased travel cards that offered unlimited travel on all trains, trams and buses (in certain cities), as well as some of the boats that ply around the lakes in places like Geneva and Zurich and Luzern.  The tickets cost CHF49 per day. The day before my first card became valid (they are dated and can only be used on that date) I took an off-peak train into Zurich on a shopping expedition - the return fare was CHF46.   The trains are of course Swiss Railways, the heavily subsidized national carrier, and the trams and buses run by the specific cities out of city and Canton taxes, but the shared railcard struck me as being superb value for money.

There are lessons here for many Governments, I think, not least those of Poland and the UK.

It really is one of my favourite places.

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I had gone there to convalesce after some tricky surgery on a damaged arm (a ruptured bicep had to be reattached to one forearm) that had not gone completely to plan: my thumb on that hand remains weaker and less flexible to this day and there is less mobility than I would like from the shoulder down.  It was the latest episode in a list going back a few years - stress and blood pressure problems that were instrumental in my decision to leave the rat race, a broken toe and torn thigh muscle that brought my daily exercise routines on bike and foot grinding to a halt for two successive summers, and finally two Covid infections within six months.  All that had left me feeling pretty tired and listless and without much interest in anything: shitty really, and that in turn led to a bout of depression that took more than a year to work through (and has left me on my guard not allow a relapse).

So when I was offered the opportunity for some time to myself, a change of scenery in a country I knew and liked, it was no brainer.  I got my Swiss Covid pass organised (the online process took about 5 minutes and within a similar time I received my admission QR code in my Inbox), used airmiles for my flight, packed my bags and off I went.  Completely painless, no onerous security checks at either end, and my Star Alliance Silver Frequent Flyer card was still valid and allowed access to Business Lounges for food and drink before my flights.  Apart from wearing a mask all the times (except during eating) it was simply another Schengen area journey.  Like old times.  I enjoyed it.

The drive from Zurich Airport to Schaffhausen with my host took a pleasant hour.  The sun shone hot from a cloudless blue sky, the rolling hills and forests flanking the highway were  a lush green, now and again sparkling rivers and small lakes could be glimpsed through the barriers. Traffic was light and well ordered, everyone going along quite happily in the early evening sunshine, enjoying the ride, rather than racing madly along, swerving from lane to lane in the desperate need to Be First that characterizes Polish driving.  After 18 months of experiencing nothing but that mad frenzy the drive to Schaffhausen was in itself therapeutic and I could feel myself relaxing and my stress level dropping by the kilometre.

I had a room in a typical Swiss apartment that was very ordered and very comfortable, in a neat neighbourhood on the northern edge of town.  I had a balcony that offered views south towards the town centre and to rolling forested hills rising behind and around us (and the development itself was reached via a 2 km uphill walk from the centre).  It was a quiet, peaceful place, off the main road (itself carrying little more than light traffic at any time), the block one of perhaps a dozen widely separated by parking areas and well tended grassland.  There was a primary school close by so the sound of children playing and laughing (rarely crying) was a fine soundtrack as I relaxed with my books and coffee on the balcony.

My host presented me with a Fodor's Swiss Guidebook (English language of course), helped me organise my travel cards, made some suggestions as to places to visit both locally and further afield, and with the help of a town street plan and visitors' guide oriented me and highlighted places and restaurants to visit.  He and his partner were leaving that weekend for a vacation in Sardinia, leaving me to my own devices.  I could not wait to get started.

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The first few days I spent exploring the town, and a lovely place it is.

It's a typical small Swiss city, capital of the eponymous smallest and most northerly Canton, and its proximity to Germany is clearly reflected in its architecture, particularly in the picturesque Old Town next to the railway station.  This is shared with the Deutsche Bahn national rail company, so catching trains and trams across the nearby border to towns and cities in Germany is easy, cheap and convenient.  Since Switzerland is also part of the EU's Schengen travel area, there are no border controls - I walked through the forest park behind where I was staying on the Sunday (and a beautiful but tiring hike it was) and ended up in Germany without seeing any sign that I had crossed a frontier.  I only realized I had done so when, tired out, I came to a small village and decided to catch a train from there back to Schaffhausen.  The signs on the station building carried the DB logo, as did the small three car train that arrived shortly after, and most of the car number plates by the houses and in the station car park carried German number plates.  This is Europe at its best.

But back to the Old Town.  It's very typical of others I had seen on my travels around the Continent, a pedestrianized mix of cobbled streets and small courtyards and squares surrounding a larger, central space where there is usually a large church.  There is usually a mix of modern stores and souvenir shops, local cuisine restaurants and pizza parlours and McDonalds', small museums and a town hall.  Schaffhausen has all of this, but the old Germanic buildings, rather than plain brick, are often half-beamed, almost in Elizabethan style, with small balconies and gables overlooking the streets and courtyards, their frontage decorated with well-tended and colourful artwork.  Scattered around were small coffee bars that I used regularly throughout my stay, and enjoyed decent coffees and pastries at them all.  I also discovered a couple of bookshops with extensive selections of English language volumes, and ended up buying six or seven new works to add to my To Read pile.  I thought it would easily keep me going through the rest of that calendar year (and it did - and beyond...). 

Close to the Old Town is a wide and well maintained promenade that runs 6 km along the river to the Rhein Fall in the south west, and perhaps 30 km easterly to a town called Stein am Rhein, a smaller and possibly even more beautiful town than Schaffhausen.  Running through both on its long journey to the North Sea is the River Rhine.  Here it is still clear watered and good for swimming, wide and slow flowing (except the stretch between the centre of Schaffhausen and the Falls) and there was a lot of boat traffic.  You can get a cruise on small pleasure boats similar to those that ply their trades on Lakes Zurich and Leman and Luzern between these lovely old towns, but I couldn't find the time to fit the trip in - it's one for a future visit.

Other delights?  Well, for one the Guterhof restaurant. It's a big white painted typically Germanic slab of a building, standing right on the promenade overlooking the Rhine.  As well as the usual restaurant menu it also doubles, at least during the day, as a Moevenpick ice cream parlour and coffee shop.  On my first solo trip into the town I spent a good couple of hours there, sampling delicious coffee and a rather fine cheesecake with almonds, apricots and stracciatella ice cream, watching the river flowing gently past, and those healthily glowing OAPs marching by with their alpine walking sticks or pedalling happily along the prom on their fully laden mountain bikes.  And feeling the cares that had bothered me recently slipping away.

Then there in the centre close to the bookshop is All Saints Cathedral (Munster zu Allerheiligen.  Adjoining it is a monastery, herb garden and a lovely sheltered cloister.  I sat alone in the clean sunlit and peaceful main church for an hour, contemplating life, the universe and everything, and felt much the better for it.  

Finally, I visited the Munot, a big circular watchtower on a hill overlooking the Old Town and surrounded by a nice rose garden with lovely views across the old rooftops.  It's surrounded by a deep and grassed moat that is home to perhaps 30 grey deer, wandering around happily munching the grass and ignoring the tourists snapping away on their phone cameras.  The place is next to the athletics park with the snack bar selling that excellent local IPA.  I intended to go back and try some of the other brews, but never did.

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The Rhein Fall is a nice 6 km walk out of town, westerly along the promenade.  At one point there is a small power station, housed in a complex that spans the entire river and uses a row of weirs to harness the river flow (accelerating at this point as it nears the falls) to power the big generators that supply a good chunk of the town's electricity needs.  It's open to the public sometimes, but I gave it a miss.

All along this stretch of the river, on both sides, are lovely little cottages, some single and others in small terraces, and with little gardens that run right down to the promenade where are moored many small skiffs, used by (at least some of) the residents.  Very nice place to live - but I would expect very expensive. 

The falls themselves are no Niagara, and I'm quite surprised there are no bigger ones in Europe (if the guidebooks and Wikipedia are to be believed), but at least you can get up close and personal to them to take your pics.  There are a number of viewing areas on both sides of the river, on the final stretch of rapids as they approach the fall, from some of which you can easily reach out and dip your hand in the rushing water (I didn't), some larger man-made areas that reach into the water and divide the flow and divert it into smaller streams around the cafeteria area, and one big rock, perhaps thirty feet high centrally located and right at the foot of the fall.  You get to this one by boats from a jetty across the width of the pool that gathers where the river turns left through a right-angle as it slows its flow towards Germany and the sea. Steps lead up to a fenced viewing platform at the summit, and the photo-opportunities from there must be exceptional - again, it's something to experience another time with my family.  Both above and below the falls the railway runs: below the falls is the main line from Schaffhausen to Zurich, running both directions, while above the falls a single track line through short tunnels either side of the river links Schaffhausen to Winterthur and thence westerly into Zurich along a suburban S-bahn line.  I used both on my subsequent days' travel, and very pleasant rides they are both, through rolling Swiss countryside and small picture book villages,

On the river bend, next to the jetty whence the boats ply, there is a gift shop and three or four food stalls with tables placed right at the river's edge opposite the falls to provide yet more photo-opportunities, as well as a couple of elevated and expensive looking restaurants with outdoor seating under the usual big, branded umbrellas.   I settled on one of the cafes and at my riverside table enjoyed a huge bratwurst (white sausage) wrapped in newspaper with a big plate of excellent chips, made from proper potato slices rather than re-constituted mush, deep-fried twice for extra crispness, and washed down with a fine cold lager from the brewery that forms part of the complex.  

The place is certainly well worth the effort to get there, and the walk itself enjoyable.  Highly recommended.

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So that was Schaffhausen.  I can't wait to revisit the place, see more of the surrounding area and return to the old haunts.  I'd certainly like to spend more time around Stein am Rhein and take a trip onto the Bodensee just to the east, at the end of which on the German side lies Friedrichshafen, where Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin developed the airships that for a while offered superb air travel (at least until the Hindenburg disaster).  

Now the next post will cover my various day trips, featuring more pics and more travel recommendations.  So without further ado, kindly move along to that!