Largest waterfalls in Europe

Every continent has it's geographic wonders and one of the joys of our time here has been exploring many of them. Particularly the Alps! But we are also a stones throw from the Rhein river which remains one of the most important navigable rivers in the world. This is, in large part, thanks to the tremendous amount of water that flows down it from the Alps and the fact that it cuts through some of the most fertile and productive lands of France and Germany before it reaches the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands. But another important factor in navigability is a lack of significant changes in the slope of the river as it makes its way to the sea.

One area where this isn't the case, however is along the Swiss-German boarder near a town called Neuhausen am Rheinfall. At this point in the rivers meandering course it takes a sharp turn to the north over a hard limestone bed which has avoided erosion for more than 100 thousand years since the last great glaciation. The river then descends 75 feet just as it makes a hairpin turn west and then south as it continues it's journey on a west/southwest track to Basel before making the turn north towards the sea.

This little bit of Rhein trivia was unknown to me just a few weeks ago but then in the span of just over a week multiple people suggested to Amanda and I separately that we should go take a look while the river was at its fullest thanks to all the snow run-off. Now if just one co-worker had mentioned it I don't know that we would have been all that interested. Afterall we'd both been to Niagara and from a waterfall stats perspective it should be far more impressive then Rheinfalls. But thankfully it wasn't just one recommendation because the trip was definitely worth the time. There are fantastic views of the falls from many different angles, a boat ride that gets you right up to the base of the falls and a short walk through a cave that opens onto a platform that feels like it's going to get swamped any second by the "Most powerful waterfall in Europe" according to flow rate. But words simply don't do it justice but hopefully these photos and videos will help.

not sure on the significance of the cows

one of us accidently napped in the car ride to the falls & wasn't quite ready for the sound of rushing water

more cows?

Make sure to have your volume on so you can hear the power of the water.

After touring the falls, there were a few people busking along the side of the path back to the car. Olivia apparently enjoyed their presence. 

What more could we want from a day trip to the falls? Oh, ice cream of course.