Schaffhausen The Rhine Falls, the Castle Villa (Schlossvilla) and foodie hotspots

It’s anoth­er hot summer’s day and how lucky I am to be in Schaffhausen. The Rhine flows through the cen­tre of the city and has a wel­come cool­ing effect every­where. Schaffhausen has much more to offer than just the world-famous riv­er. The hand­ball team reg­u­lar­ly wins Swiss cham­pi­onships and there are numer­ous food­ie hotspots.

I vis­it­ed Schaffhausen Youth Hos­tel pri­vate­ly back in the autumn. This time I’m here to expe­ri­ence a per­fect summer’s day. The Schaffhausen Youth Hos­tel is open from March to Octo­ber and its high sea­son is in sum­mer. I’ve heard many times from my friend who lives there that Schaffhausen is par­tic­u­lar­ly beau­ti­ful dur­ing the warmer months. She is going to show me the city and its many virtues. I hope she’ll also give me an insid­er tip or two.

Sirko, the hos­tel man­ag­er and a native of Ger­many, also raves about Schaffhausen. He tells me that the first writ­ten record­ing of the Cas­tle Vil­la, where youth hos­tel guests stay, was way back in 1492. Before the Cas­tle Vil­la became a youth hos­tel, it was owned by the Sturzeneg­ger fam­i­ly and the famous writer Her­mann Hesse. The prop­er­ty was bequeathed to the city with the agree­ment that it would be turned into some­thing that would pro­vide social ben­e­fits. Now trav­ellers from near and far can expe­ri­ence this spe­cial youth hos­tel and use the beau­ti­ful gar­den to enjoy fun and games. I enjoy my break­fast in the gar­den and relax on one of the wood­en loungers in the shade of the trees. Anoth­er great plus point of this youth hos­tel is that you can reach the town cen­tre in about 15 min­utes on foot.

The Rhybadi historic river baths, Rhine Falls and a Swiss champion

My friend, who lives in Schaffhausen, takes me under her wing. As I am com­plain­ing about the heat, she takes me straight to the Rhy­ba­di his­toric riv­er baths. The baths are locat­ed in the heart of the city and have been cre­at­ed in the tra­di­tion­al bathing style. I real­ly like the pool and you can float about in the riv­er and then climb back onto the plat­form to sun­bathe. And nat­u­ral­ly, there is also a snack shop. The Rhy­ba­di is ide­al if you want to relax for longer. Anoth­er option is to sim­ply walk from Schaffhausen to Ger­many in your swimwear and head for the water just before the “Büsin­gen” sign. Please note that you should pay atten­tion to the signs marked “Aussteigen” that show you the best spots to get out before­hand so you don’t miss them. The Rhine cur­rents can quick­ly become stronger. Swim­ming to the Rhine Falls would be a very bad idea. It’s best to get there on foot or by boat or train.

No, you did­n’t mis­read that: You can actu­al­ly take the train to Schaffhausen and get a spec­tac­u­lar view of the Rhine Falls. I walk from the town cen­tre to the Rhine Falls and buy a tick­et at Laufen Cas­tle (Schloss Laufen) to expe­ri­ence the Rhine Falls at close quar­ters. The del­uges of water are gigan­tic and I am fas­ci­nat­ed by its pow­er. I don’t test out the boats – but it’s cer­tain­ly an adven­tur­ous under­tak­ing, as they go right up to the rock for­ma­tions where the pas­sen­gers then dis­em­bark. The view from this height can only be good – that much is cer­tain.

More or less by chance I end up at a hand­ball match lat­er in the evening. The teams are fight­ing to win the Swiss cham­pi­onship title. I’m sit­ting in a sports hall with 3,000 peo­ple, most of them dressed in orange, cheer­ing on the “Kadet­ten Schaffhausen” team, which on this evening in June 2023 ends up win­ning the Swiss cham­pi­onship title for the twelfth time.

Well-deserved drink after this great day. ©Christi­na

3 top foodie tips: Crêpes, burgers and the best ice cream ever

You can rely on my friend from Schaffhausen when it comes to good food. Since I only booked my room at the youth hos­tel with break­fast, I feast my way through Schaffhausen. A big high­light for me is the Barka­da Burg­er Bar. The restau­rant is locat­ed in the heart of the city and has only been open for a few years. How­ev­er, the burg­er is already being pro­mot­ed there as one of the best burg­ers in Switzer­land. I love the veg­e­tar­i­an option and high­ly rec­om­mend a vis­it, espe­cial­ly if you’re feel­ing very hun­gry.

Anoth­er great place to eat is Lunas Crêpes. It’s ide­al for lunch. We drift from the Ger­man bor­der to the crêpe stand on the Rhine and for­ti­fy our­selves with the “house cheese mix” crêpe. It’s real­ly deli­cious. Final­ly, we indulge in an ice cream at El Bertin. I’m lucky, because appar­ent­ly it’s nor­mal to queue for up to 45 min­utes on hot sum­mer days until you get hold of your cho­sen ice cream. The flavours are unusu­al – I could have ordered at least six dif­fer­ent flavours. Thank­ful­ly, I’m sure I’ll be eat­ing an ice cream in Schaffhausen at a future date.