#upper rhine

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UPPER RHINE, 15TH CENTURY Pattern sheet with symbols of the Evangelists, various animals and a Wild Man ca. 1430 – 1440

[merpmonde]

Hochrheinbahnen part 2: Rheinfelden to Laufenburg

Leaving Rheinfelden (link to part 1), I elected to use the Bözberg line on the Swiss side to get to my next visit. I find that Switzerland has some amusing place names - to get to Handegg would be awesome! (link to KnowYourMeme) -, and here's one along the way, Mumpf (25 km from Basel SBB).

In all seriousness, we're stopping at the next station, Stein-Säckingen (28 km), for another town with an interesting border crossing: a covered wooden bridge.

Over 200 m long and over 300 years old (with renovations, though a bridge has been recorded here since 1272), the Holzbrücke is open to pedestrians and cyclists. Until its last refurbishment, it even took cars, which sounds nuts today. The border is in the middle of the bridge, and is neatly marked.

On the German side, Bad Säckingen (32 km from Basel Bad Bf) has a historic centre with a richly decorated cathedral (seen in the photo above) to offer, as well as some charming literature folklore associated with 19th century stories about a trumpeter, featuring the aforementioned tomcat Hiddigeigei.

Next morning, and the fog has rolled in, somewhat obscuring the establishing shots of our next location, Laufenburg (40 km). Similar story to Rheinfelden: the town was established on both sides of the Rhine, and one day, Napoleon arrived on his high horse and decided that the river shall be the border, splitting Laufenburg in two. That said, today, the Schengen agreement means that the border is hardly ever closed, to the point where the barriers can be reliably used to string up party banners for the town fete - Fasnacht is coming up.

The Swiss side, served by a branch line at Laufenburg (37 km from Basel SBB), features a church and some castle ruins above its historic centre, which seemed to be in the process of being repaved. I was struck by how calm everywhere was, but it is January. I expect it'd be much busier in spring or summer. The place looks fantastic for hiking too. Either way, the fog lifted ever so slightly as I left for Waldshut, revealing some snow on the hills.

[merpmonde]

Hochrhein cats

Another short post today, but don't worry, a mini-series is coming following my 3-day mosey along the Hochrhein. For now, have some cats I met along the way!

First, we have Hiddigeigei the Tomcat, a mascot of Bad Säckingen. Written as a companion to the town's other folk figure, the Trumpeter, he's a more sceptical and misanthropic character - though he's been cheered up for modern audiences it seems!

The next day, in Eglisau, I encountered this amusing scene. I'm sure there some symbolism in there, but I can't be bothered to research it. More notable is the fact that I managed to get these shots. My usual compact camera can't do this, but my brother-in-law has lent me one of his reflex cameras - it lets in a bit more light and has a shutter speed control mode which is great for this kind of mid lighting you get in winter.

[merpmonde]

Hochrheinbahnen part 3: Waldshut to Eglisau

We start this leg in Germany at Waldshut (55 km from Basel Bad Bf), another town with a charming historic centre, though it's only really concentrated around the pedestrian high street, with its colourful and ornate buildings, many named after birds (I count at least eight).

Like many places along the Rhine so far, Waldshut's status was affected by the Napoleonic wars, though a bit differently. For a while, it had been a possession of the Habsburgs, hence it embraces an Austrian heritage. The Habsburgs defeat to Napoleon at Austerlitz led to Vörderösterreich being dissolved, and Waldshut, on the right bank of the Rhine, was handed to the Duchy of Baden. Opposite, on the left bank, the Swiss nuclear power plant at Leibstadt (47 km from Basel SBB, no station) somewhat dominates the landscape.

From Waldshut, the German Hochrheinbahn makes a beeline for Schaffhausen, while the river starts to meander. So, to follow the river more closely, we take a detour in Switzerland, crossing to Koblenz (54 km). Amusingly, there is another Koblenz along the Rhine, in Germany, but not directly opposite - it's way, way further downstream, past Mainz. I've been there but am yet to make a significant post on it.

And so we arrive at Eglisau (80 km), our last stop for today. Between here and Bülach is a short section with connections for trains to Waldshut, Schaffhausen, Zürich and Winterthur. Below, an international Stuttgart-Zürich DB InterCity double-decker crosses the single-track viaduct from Schaffhausen.

And this is the view of the other side of the road bridge:

Eglisau is a lovely little place, with a charming historic centre - tell me if you've heard this one before. And like everywhere else on this trip, it's probably more popular in warmer seasons. Meanwhile, you know I like me a good clock, and a break in the clouds allowed me to use the sundial: nearly 3 PM solar time, and near the winter solstice on the calendar.

[merpmonde]

Hochrheinbahnen part 5: Stein am Rhein to Schaffhausen

At Stein am Rhein (27 km from Konstanz), the Bodensee is narrow enough to qualify as a river again. This is the start of the Hochrhein, or Upper Rhine, which I did an exploration of back in January. So this is quite a moment for this blog: two mini-series joining up! This is both a sequel to part 7 of the Bodensee tour, and a more detailed look at a brief section in part 4 of the Hochrhein.

Stein am Rhein is a picturesque town in two senses. It is, as shown in the top photo, genuinely wonderful to look at from some angles, but it is also a town with lots of pictures on the buildings. Colourful trompe-l'oeil, artistic representations of episodes of urban life or other symbols, timber frames and ornate oriels are everywhere on the delightful main square.

Our next stop is Diessenhofen (36 km), where we find a common feature of previous episodes of the Hochrhein series: a border bridge between Switzerland and Germany. Like at Säckingen, this one is largely made of wood, but unlike others we'd seen previously, it does not connect two villages with the same name (on the German side it's Gailingen), and cars are allowed on it, which can make it not the most pleasant crossing.

The Swiss railway line doesn't follow the Rhine very closely from here, so what I did last week was catch a boat to Büsingen (42 km), a German exclave, which means it is German territory surrounded by Switzerland - and its logo says so much! I would have hiked from Diessenhofen to Schaffhausen, but I'm glad I didn't because it was getting very hot, and the edge of the Rhine didn't seem that interesting. In fact, Büsingen was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't find much there, though I might not have been looking in the right places, and the walk was a very exposed affair, not immediately along the river.

The border back into Switzerland is intangible but boy, can you tell you've changed country! The path is back along the river and you've got trees! What's more, Schaffhausen (47 km) and the Munot forteress are in sight.

We've now completed the connection between the Hochrhein and the Bodensee, and, when it comes to purely train connections around the Untersee, the route is Radolfzell > Konstanz > Stein am Rhein > Schaffhausen > Singen > Radolfzell. The link is to our numerous posts on Singen, and there's not a lot to talk about outside Singen on that last leg as far as I can tell, so I'm considering this circuit done. Around the Untersee by local train is 96 km, but a lot of it is away from the lake. In fact, at the time of writing, completing the circuit by train is impossible as the bridge between Feuerthalen and Schaffhausen is closed for works, but I did ride it in April.

So in the next post, we will be doing the same thing as in part 3 to complete the Bodensee tour: catching a bus from Stein am Rhein to Radolfzell to stay close to the shore.

[merpmonde]

Hochrheinbahnen part 4: Eglisau to Singen

Leaving Eglisau (link to part 3) across the viaduct leads us towards Schaffhausen, a canton with a seemingly fractal boundary with Germany, as the route to Singen goes in and out of Switzerland. After calling at Rafz (85 km from Basel SBB) in Switzerland and Jestetten (92 km) in Germany, the line re-enters Switzerland in style.

Neuhausen Rheinfall (97 km) is undoubtedly the most spectacular station on the route, with a panoramic view of the Rhine falls, which I previously visited in summer - links to post 1 and post 2.

It's fair to say that the falls are more impressive in summer, as in winter, water flows by at half the rate. It transforms the roaring beast into something somewhat more tranquil, the lower level of the river, and far lower level of tourism, offering the local water birds some space to wade.

The Swiss train line connects with the German Hochrheinbahn at Schaffhausen (94 km from Basel Bad Bf, 100 km from Basel SBB). The city has a beautiful historic centre which deserves its own post, though I have talked about one of its towers. It boasts a unique round fortress, the Munot, which also deserves its own post. Let's just say that it was innovative in the modern sense of the term (i.e. it tried to reinvent the wheel and turned out being not very good).

My schedule meant that I couldn't follow the Rhine further, but a Swiss line does continue close to the river. It crosses near the Munot to Feuerthalen (102 km), and continues on to Stein am Rhein (120 km) and Kreuzlingen (146 km), where it is possible to cross to Konstanz (147 km) in Germany, of Lake Constance fame. Back to Schaffhausen and view above: behind that hill on the left of the picture is another border curiosity, Büsingen, a German exclave. The Tim Traveller has made a video about it - link.

Back on the Hochrheinbahn, we reach Singen (113 km from Basel Bad Bf), which I made several posts about after my visit in Summer 2024. This time, it was just a stopover, the night before returning to Schaffhausen, just enough time to go back to the place I'd teased this series with, and picture the local Ampelmännchen: a local Fasnacht character called Poppele.

Officially, the Hochrheinbahn continues on to Radolfzell (123 km) and Konstanz (144 km), but it operates as the extension of the Schwarzwaldbahn which we've been getting to know quite well on this blog (link to one post). I boarded one of the Konstanz-Karlsruhe expresses, passing a frosty and cloudy Hohentwiel, heading home. My exam papers weren't going to mark themselves - shame.

[merpmonde]

Hochrheinbahnen part 1: Basel to Rheinfelden

We start our trip up the Rhine valley from Basel to Singen, where else but at Basel (0 km), specifically at the DB-operated Badischer Bahnhof. At this station, two German lines meet, and passengers can connect between them without going through customs. It's a major freight interchange between Swiss and other traction, hence some international locomotives sitting around: below, a Dutch Vectron and an Austrian Taurus wait for their next missions.

We've visited Basel and the area immediately to the East previously: see here for the reaction ferries and the Kraftwerk crossing between Wyhlen (7 km) and Augst, with its Roman ruins (Kaiseraugst, 10 km from Basel SBB). We've also covered the tri-national S-Bahn in the area. As such, our first stop on this tour is accessible on both sides of the Rhine and both sides of the Swiss-German border... with the same name!

Rheinfelden, Baden (14 km), the German side, is relatively recent, dating back to the 19th century. Indeed, it was in 1802 that the German-Swiss border was definitively placed on the Rhine, so the territory of Rheinfelden was split in two, and a new town centre developed in the Grand Duchy of Baden, as it was at the time.

Crossing over to Switzerland is very simple: just walk, or cycle, or catch a bus, over the Rheinbrücke. Walking or cycling will at least allow you to stop on the island in the middle of the river, which was very tranquil when I went there, but that might just be January.

Rheinfelden, Aargau (15 km from Basel SBB), on the Swiss side, is the historic part of town, with a preserved centre surrounded by some sections of the medieval wall and towers. Above left: St Martin's Church; right: the Obertorturm.

Rheinfelden's claim to fame in the modern era is the site of the world's first 50 Hz AC hydroelectric power plant, opened in 1898. This type of current with this frequency is now the standard in Europe, and the upgraded Kraftwerk is an integral part of the continent's power grid.

[tomastwielo-blog]

Fog in the Upper Rhine Valley due to inversion, seen from Schwarzmiss Pass Summit, Northern Black Forest, in the bachground the Vosges, December 2016