Rhine Falls & Stein am Rhein from Zurich

The Rhine Falls is not the tallest waterfall in Europe but it is the biggest, and volume is what you feel standing next to it. The river is 150 metres wide here and drops 23 metres over a limestone shelf, pushing around 600 cubic metres a second through in summer - roughly a quarter of a million bathtubs a minute, and loud enough that conversation stops. A limestone rock stands upright in the middle of the falls, split off from the shelf and left there. Boats run out to it and you can climb the steps to the top and stand in the centre of the river with the water going past on both sides. There is no other waterfall in Europe where that is possible. Laufen Castle sits directly above on the south bank, with viewing platforms cantilevered out over the water. Upstream, Stein am Rhein is what the Rhine looked like before industry. The town square is lined with houses whose entire facades are painted - sixteenth-century frescoes, oriel windows, guild signs - and it survived intact because the river trade moved elsewhere and left it alone. Around 50 minutes from Zurich. Easy walking, no altitude, and it works in any weather that is not actively dangerous.