We spent a weekend visiting Gianni's sister Nadja and family in Bülach a small town in the municipality of Zürich, Switzerland. Well six years ago we thought it was small but fast forward a few years and mega apartments have replaced green space and the town now boasts close to 25,000 people.
Spending time with family is always wonderful and Nadja and Stephan not only made sure we got to see some great sites but also food was amazing. Crystal came with us on this trip and she couldn't remember how beautiful Switzerland is.
On our first day we took a day trip to three little towns which we were able to get not only amazing scenery and food but we got a great walk / hike in.
Diessenhofen
The first town we visited was Diessenhofen a small town of less than 4,000 people in the municipality in Frauenfeld District. What is amazing about this town is that if you go across the tiny Rhine Bridge you leave Switzerland and enter Germany where there is no border crossing. It is one way so you have to wait your turn to cross.
The town boasts many hills and there are many staircases that you have to climb to go top to bottom of the town. These gave us some great steps in.
The town is typical Swiss architecture and truly beautiful and clean. Here are some cute photos:
Walking through the town there are some beautiful scenery on the Rhine River. Here are some photos of our walk on the Rhine.
Hänkiturm is a tower on the Rhine in Diessenhofen. I couldn't find much on this tower but there is a plaque on the wall that I used Google Translate to get the just of what this tower is. So here is what it states " Hänkiturm was probably built in 1392 as a gun emplacement built directly on the Rhine. In 1617 it was converted into a prison, then in 1800 Heinricht Hanhart converted into commercial property and he had the tent roof and walls demolished and set up a drying room with a cantilever roof for his textile dying. From 1880 until 1947 it stood empty until the city took it over and restored it to what it stands today."
Wagenhausen
The second town was Wagenhausen a small town of less than 2,000 people in the same municipality in Frauenfeld District. It sits on the lake line between Schaffhausen and Rorschach and is served by the St. Gallen S-Bahn and Zürich S-Bahn at the Etzwilen railway station, located in the village of the same name. Nadja and Stephan have camped here before and this is how they came to know about the area.
Here are photos of picturesque Wagenhausen:
We had lunch at Landgasthof Camping Restaurant as Nadja and Stephan love the food here. And I couldn't agree more. I had the Chicken Cordon blue that was full of cheesiness and white asparagus with hollandaise sauce that were to die for. Of course we had beer and more beer. Here are pictures of our meal:
Stein am Rhein
After a nice lunch and walk at Diessenhofen we headed to Stein am Rhein in the municipality of Schaffhausen. This is a town of under 3,500 people and still holds much of it's medieval history. The town is is pedestrian traffic only therefore we parked a ways away and took a good hike over the bridge that spans Lake Constance into a beautiful village.
Here are photos of our hike to the center:
Once into the center what is truly stunning is that most of the buildings have frescoed facades. Each building more beautiful than the the one before. Honestly I could have spent hours just looking at the artwork and reflecting on how the artists had to set themselves up to paint them.
Here are some beautiful photo's of the buildings:
It was a long day seeing three beautiful towns, had a wonderful lunch, got almost 20,000 steps in but most of all spent a great day making cherished memories with family. If you get the chance to go to Switzerland, take time to take it all in, because the architecture and beauty is so different than north America.
Here is a two minute video of the Switzerland sights
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