Basel – Festival City

Yes, we are back in the USA, but there are still so many stories and photos to share.

Basel sits in the northwest corner of Switzerland, on the Rhine river, and on the French and German borders. It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460). Erasmus and Paracelsus taught there. Other notable residents include Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietsche, and Roger Federer! Basel has Switzerland's only cargo port, with ships sailing up the Rhine river to Rotterdam, and the ocean.

The Munster (cathedral) dates back to 1019, but was severely damaged in the earthquake of 1356. Every major church and castle in the area was destroyed in this, the most significant seismological event in Central Europe in recorded history.

According to my travel guide they love festivals in Basel, and when we arrived at the Tourist Information office (which was OPEN on a Sunday!), they were very excited about all the special stuff happening that day. Stores would be open! EEK! Museums free! It’s not normal for either the TI offices or the shops to be open on a Sunday, so we already had a warm fuzzy feeling about Basel.

It was unclear if there was any significance to this festival, and obviously it was not the legendary Basler Fasnacht , the biggest Carnival in Switzerland; but all the Platzes had something going on, as we discovered at Barfusserplatz (Barefoot Place), with amusement park rides right on the doorstep of the museum.

I enjoyed seeing the Raclette stand: that’s Switzerland for you, instead of cotton candy, they have melted cheese!

Every city in Switzerland has excellent public trans-portation, and Basel is no exception. It only took a few minutes to figure out how to hop a trolley up the hill to the Spalentor, a beautiful old gate built in 1379. Although impressive, I thought it looked a bit silly all by itself without any walls attached.

We wandered through the old city, taking photos of the antique houses. This one has a strangely twisted roof; it was built in 1502.

The houses in Basel are simpler than those in some of the other cities we visited, but made up for it with creative trim painting and many different kinds of windows and shutters.

People were out and about, enjoying the day, and I had the feeling that I could be very happy living in Basel.

On to the Historical Museum which was free because of the Festival.

I was disappointed to find that the renowned Strasbourg tapestries exhibit was closed for renovations, but there were some lovely tapestries in another gallery. They were altar tapestries, and were displayed with other religious art, mostly gorgeous carved wood.

You can see more about them on my tapestry blog, Tangled Web.

It’s a lovely museum, and the receptionist was exceptionally helpful and friendly. I asked if they had a catalog for sale and was told I could have one for free if I filled out a questionnaire!

Our next stop was on the other side of the river, so we set off to find one of the famous ferryboats.

There are plenty of bridges, but these ferries are fascinating, and were very mysterious to us, because they obviously have no motors. Each ferry has a long cable that slides along another cable over the river, and the ferry is moved silently across the river by the force of the current.

Our destination on the other side was the Jean Tinguely Museum. This artist was a Swiss native, part of the Dada movement (or non-movement) and is known mostly for his kinetic sculpture.

Like most Swiss museums, photography is permitted, just not with a flash. We took about a million photos and had a lot of fun.

Many of these sculptures still function and the museum was filled with motion, and sounds of squeaking and groaning. Here is a link to a video I took with my little camera, and another one here.

We noticed that the trains were filled to capacity every Sunday. These are very big trains. We saw families with young children going to Gramma’s house for Sunday dinner, young men drinking a beer, telling stories and laughing, elderly couples out for an adventure. It’s much more relaxing and social than driving a car, and since most of the seats are facing each other, people can sit together and chat face to face.

During our 2 ½ months in Switzerland, we never had a car, and we rode the trains constantly.

They are always on time, and always convenient. I knitted, read magazines, did crossword puzzles and played games on my iTouch. We miss the trains now that we’re home and driving everywhere.