A day in Basel, Switzerland
Basel is a thrilling city – the history, the culture, the entire lifestyle, is wonderful. I really tried to keep the number of photos down for this post, but it just didn’t work for me – there’s so much I’d love to tell you, but there’s no time. So here’s a summary of our full day in Basel.
We started off today with breakfast at the hotel again. The breakfast room appears to be a converted coal bunker – beautifully done, and the food and service are equally high quality.
We basically planned our day around the “Experience Basel” brochure we got a the hotel. It describes 5 walks that cover the main sights of the historic part of the city.
Early into the Thomas Platter Walk, I spotted the “white horse” house in the craftsmen’s district. Quite different than any house seen in the Whitehorse I know – particularly the sign above the door that says it was built in 1279, enlarged to its current form in 1461.
At the university, Switzerland’s oldest (it weas founded in 1461).
This home was built in 1579.
It’s hard to not end up back at the Rhine River at some point during a walk around Basel – this is the Mittlere Brucke (“middle bridge”).
Detail on a government administration building up the Elftausendjungfern-Gasslein (11,000 Virgins Lane). I’d sure like to know where that name came from!
One of the hundreds of restaurants we passed by, the Restaurant zum Isaak, in the Munsterplatz (the Cathderal Square).
The cathedral is both magnificent and fascinating. After buying a small book, “The Cathderal of Basle”, that describes and explains many of the details of the structure and it’s complex construction history, I could have spent an entire day there.
Having these women performing while we were exploring the cathedral was wonderful.
There is some superb stained glass.
Cathy is in the choir, browsing a book describing some details of the renovation currently underway.
The tomb of Queen Anna, wife of Rudolf of Habsburg, with her 3-year-old son Karl. She chose to be buried in Basel to attone for her husband’s cruelty whilst ruling Basel during the 1270s. Several of the men, and this child, have their feet cradling a dog or or other animal – I haven’t yet found out the sgnificance of that.
A large bulk carrier, the Tamaris, sails down the Rhine below the cathedral.
One of the town’s more important families apparently built this home near the cathedral.
Above the door, a pair of leopards are guarding a shield that says “Olsperger hof, 1389”.
It was interesting to see the massive man-power required to rebuild a cobbled road.
A preserved section of the city wall, near the St. Albans ferry.
We had hoped to see the Paper Mill Museum, but had forgotten that most museums, large and small, are closed on Mondays throughout much of Europe. A renovation project has this museum closed for 3½ months, so we would have been out of luck on any day, though.
Another of the 40 museums in Basel is dedicated to cartoons. The Cartoon Museum collection includes over 3,400 pieces of original art and related artifacts.
Beautiful cars are seen everywhere in Basel, but this lovely old Volvo (an early-1960s P1800) brought back memories of the TV series “The Avengers”, in which Emma Peel and John Steed raced around Europe solving crimes.
Back to the hustle and bustle of the center of the historic area. Freie Strasse, seen here, is a major shopping avenue. The tower of the Rathaus (town hall), can be seen in the distance.
This is the photo that I’ve picked as the one that says “Basel” the best. It was shot at the southern edge of the Barfusserplatz.
A scene from the daily life of a Basel family.
On the street directly below our hotel room is this Christmas shop, Johann Wanner. The word below the name is “Weihnachtsbaumschmuckausstattungsspezialgeschaeft” which means roughly “Christmas tree decoration special features shop” – phew, that’s a mouthful!
By 4:30 we were tired, so went back to the hotel for a nap. At 6:00, I went back out, on a mission to find a beautiful purse we’d seen earlier and then couldn’t find again. I continued on from that unsuccessful quest, taking a tram to the Hauptbaunhof (main train station). Near it, on the Aeschenplatz, is the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) building. Designed by Mario Botta in the early 1990s, it’s built of 2 colours of granite.
I was attracted to this statue in the little park Elisabethenanlage. During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, the city of Strasbourg was under a tight siege and constant bombardment. A private Swiss delegation persuaded the Prussians to allow them to take 3 convoys of old people, women and children out of the city, and in 1889, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi created Switzerland Succoring Strasbourg. Bartholdi is best known as the creator of Liberty Enlightening the World, usually called the Statue of Liberty. It’s amazing the stories that can be found in out-of-the-way places in combination with Google 🙂
Night falls at the Hauptbaunhof.
The train system in Europe is remarkable in its size and efficiency – I’m hugely impressed. I got a few shots out at the end of the Hauptbaunhof platform, then headed back to the hotel by tram.
This had been an excellent day. It’s now 6:25 am on Tuesday – today we board our ship for 13 days sailing down the Rhine! ttyl 🙂
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