Basel--the Flat Switzerland

Sunday, June 28

City hall water fountain

Basel is flat and not really the Switzerland one imagines of majestic peaks, lakes, and gondolas.  However, it has Switzerland’s legendary civility, cleanliness, sense of order, and above all, exorbitant prices.   And oh yes, the ubiquitous Swiss army knife logo everywhere. 

The Rhine River, just a 15 minute walk from our flat

Located on the Rhine where you can see both France and Germany, the protestant reformation in the 16^th Century triggered an exodus of Catholics and an influx of rich Protestants.  This created a chain of events which led to the formation of a big printing industry and the genesis of the pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis, AG.

Basel City Hall

We arrived on Friday without much sleep but rallied to find our three-story walk- up studio Air B&B in a neighborhood of immigrants, explore, and buy bus passes and Monday’s RR ticket to Colmar, France.  After practically falling into our beers at a café on the Rhine, we decided to go to bed at 7:00 pm. 

Basel is a city of 202 fountains (where you can actually refill your water bottle), 40 museums, and 900 charitable foundations.  So many museums, so little time and standing stamina.    

One of 40 Museums

That said, we caught a modern art museum where we were delighted to see he works of many 20^th Century artists we had only seen in college text books. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time or energy to see the Museum of Broken Relationships and 38 others.  

However, we hopped onto a tram to wherever it took us, and we later managed to take in a two-hour walking tour in the hot sun where we learned some of these tidbits. 

Former Fire Station for Vitra furniture factory

Our highlight was Sunday, when took a roundabout all-day excursion to Germany (on a Swiss bus pass) and a 2-mile death march in the hot sun to the Vitra Design Center.  If you’re into modern architecture and design, this is the place for you!  It even had a 1968 Airstream as a coffee/ice cream food cart.  Our guide’s passion for art and architecture made the tour of the huge campus even more delightful.  

Some fun on the sundial slide

The Gehry Museum of Design at the Vitra Center

Vitra Design showroom

Tonight, Sunday, we enjoyed a (relatively) cheap wine and cheese dinner on our deck before packing.  Then off to France early tomorrow to start our bike trip.  Basel is very pleasant and basic European.  We’re glad we got to briefly experience it, but it’s not on our top 40 list of places visited.  Time to move on.