Zurich...Part Deux

After we finished enjoying the cowbells and alpenhorns, we wandered the streets of Zurich looking for more excitement. Unfortunately, it was getting late in the day and my fair bride needed food. We found a lovely place called "The Spaghetti Factory" which specializes in some sort of noodle dish. It was delicious and I highly recommend it to anyone in Zurich looking to avoid the rain that they would have otherwise been exposed to had they remained outside looking for something more Swiss. In fact there is a lot of great Italian food in Europe, so for those worried about having to dine on pig trotters, foie gras, and terrine de beouf, worry not! There are also plenty of McDonald's although just to warn you a McChicken combo meal costs about 14 CHF (that's about $14 US, and you don't get free refills for your Coke, ketchup for your fries, or ice unless you are really persistent).

We took advantage of being close to the border of Germany to go celebrate the evening with a fireworks spectacular on the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen. The falls were about an hour's drive from Zurich which allowed us to see some lovely countryside, and allowed the sun to come out to allow for fireworks (yeah!). We had to walk a bit to get to the falls but they were amazing. There was a neat ledge that went out over the falls that Alli refused to go onto, and also threatened to not rescue me if I went out onto it and it broke loose sweeping me away in the river. Thankfully it did not as I think Alli would have felt pretty bad about having to explain to my family why she didn't a good enough job warning me about the dangers of waterfalls. (The photo below was taken by me as Alli would come nowhere near the platform I was standing on...I guess she's never heard of a cantilever.) Just standing near the falls you could feel the raw power of the water, it was also a bit misty.

Now these falls are no namby-pamby waterfalls, they average a water-flow this time of year of about 700 cubic meters per second, (about 25,000 cubic feet per second...that's a lot of orange juice) and although they are smaller than the Niagara falls (average of about 8 times more water-flow per second) they are still very impressive. I was prompted to come to this spot for fireworks as I learned through the power of the internet that the falls are a spectacular place to watch fireworks and it's cool to watch them go over the waterfalls. Indeed.

In America, we would have been kept a great distance away from the pyrotechnics (not to mention the waterfalls) for fear of lost limb or fireworks gone awry (or accidentally falling over the edge). In Switzerland, not so much. Not only could you get close, they pretty much were exploding directly overhead. You could feel the explosions in your chest, which I am sure would be great for those with pacemakers.. I would have expected the crowd to be a few thousand, maybe close to 10000 given that Schaffhausen is a town of about 33000 and not everyone goes to these events. Conservatively I would say there were between 100000 and 125000 people there, it was amazing. People lined the banks of the Rhine, the railroad tracks above the falls, chartered boats to sit in the water below the falls, it was unreal.

The show had typical fireworks you'd see in America, but there were a few displays that were, like totally awesome. One such display involved fireworks attached to parachutes. At first I thought they were balloons but Alli informed me (remember, I'm the engineer) that there is no way that they could launch a balloon and have it inflate (and stay inflated) with exploding shrapnel and intense heat from the very fireworks they were supporting. At least someone in this family is paying attention. The second involved launching fireworks into the water, which at first seemed like those shows you see on TV like "World's Scariest Fireworks Disasters," but eventually proved to be a deliberate act. I have attached videos of both below although they don't do justice to the awesomeness of the show.

If you are ever near the Rhine Falls and within a couple days of Swiss National Day, rearrange your plans and go check the fireworks out...you won't be disappointed!