0480 SWITZERLAND (Schaffhausen) - The Rhine Falls

Located on the Upper Rhine, near the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland, Rheinfall (The Rhine Falls) is the largest plain waterfall in Europe, with 150 m wide and 23 m high. Between the 17th century and the first half of the 19th century in the north side of the falls operated a blast furnace for smelting iron, but after closing it all industrial use projects of the falls met a strong opposition from the citizens.

Mary Shelley (known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein) visited the Falls in 1840, while on a tour of Europe with her son. She wrote in Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844): "A portion of the cataract arches over the lowest platform, and the spray fell thickly on us, as standing on it and looking up, we saw wave, and rock, and cloud, and the clear heavens through its glittering ever-moving veil. This was a new sight, exceeding anything I had ever before seen; however, not to be wet through, I was obliged quickly to tear myself away."

About the stamp
The stamp belongs of a large definitive series of birds, issued in sets. This one from which is part the stamp on this postcard, issued on May 8, 2008, consists of three stamps:
• Grey-headed Woodpecker / Picus canus (120c)
• Common Rock Thrush / Monticola saxatilis (130c) - It's on the postcard 0480
• Great Crested Grebe / Podiceps cristatus (220c)

References
Rhine Falls - Wikipedia

Sender: Marius Vasilescu
Sent from Zurich (Switzerland), on 22.05.2012
Photo: Muller