Zurich - Trip to Stein am Rhein

Painted Buildings in Stein am Rhein

Our first day trip when Geraldine was here was to Stein am Rhein. I wasn’t even sure whether this was in Switzerland, but it was. The last time I went there was when I was working in Freiburg im Breisgau back in the year 2000, and Emil very kindly spent a day with me and Julie taking us round some beautiful places nearby. That’s almost 20 years ago now - time flies!

When I went to Schaffhausen to look at the house to buy, I noticed that one of the banks was offering people free trips on the boat for a year to Stein am Rhein from Schaffhausen if they became customers with them, so that’s what reminded me. Having said that, it was also an itinerary item from last time that Geraldine was over that we hadn’t yet done.

For some weird reason, we both thought we wouldn’t need our coats. Our plan was to go to Stein am Rhein, sail along the Rhine for 2 hours and then explore the town afterwards. I’d bought the train tickets the day before so that we didn’t have to worry about it in the morning.

We got there just fine and after a little confusion about which boat it was, we bought our tickets just in time. There was a Japanese couple in front of us who had lots of questions and didn’t seem at all worried that the boat was leaving in 5 minutes. Maybe they didn’t understand Swiss punctuality? Having said that, the person serving also seemed very relaxed, so perhaps it’s just me that gets in a tizzy about getting to places on time.

Everyone else on the boat was wearing a coat, and although the day was fine, it was definitely autumnal, and the extra breeze from floating along the river made it quite chilly. It was the first day of the winter timetable. Fortunately, the boat had some blankets, so we were fine to sit outside

The Japanese couple asked us to take a photograph of them and they seemed to be having a whale of a time. They got off half-way to explore, whereas we changed boats (as you had to do) and went back. I hadn’t noticed that there were several boats as the times were (to me at least) quite confusing on the internet. The Japanese couple had asked several times at the counter whether they could stop off and come back later (with an affirmative answer).

The second boat didn’t have any blankets, which was strange as it was the same company, as far as I know. Anyway, we still sat outside to get the best view and were just about OK! We didn’t come down with colds afterwards, at any rate.

Stein am Rhein is famous for its painted houses; it’s an old town and is well worth a visit. We dithered a while about where to eat and ended up at a waffle place. It turned out that a lot of places were closed on Monday (eg, the cloister, and quite a few shops), so bear that in mind if you are planning a visit.

There were quite a few quirky shops, including one selling items (eg, handbags, rucksacks, flipflops, etc) made out of cork. If I hadn’t been moving and need to reduce the amount of things I have rather than increase them, I would have been very tempted to buy something. They also had a barrier with a carved wooden hand holding it, which was another unusual touch to an everyday thing.

On the way back, we stopped off at Winterthur to have dinner. It was maybe not such a good idea since after Stein am Rhein, Winterthur looked less impressive, even though the Old Town is quite pretty. Many people commute from Winterthur to Zurich as it’s only 15 minutes away by train and is itself a big town with lots of facilities (like Zurich city, Winterthur counts as two zones for the rail fares, since it’s so large and has so many transportation options). We ended up in a packed Italian restaurant and then made our way home. All in all, a great day.