Switzerland

So now we’re in Switzerland! Or were – I’m a couple of days behind. But let’s just use our powers of imagination, shall we?

Anyway, we touched down in the Basel airport on Wednesday (the 15th), found our way through the terminal, to find Debbie (a friend of mine from high school – FES situation) waiting for us. After catching a bus back to the city, we soon crossed over the border between Switzerland and France. What? Oh! Apparently the Basel airport is actually in France. Weird.

After the bus ride to her apartment (she lives very close to the downtown city center of Basel) which she graciously offered to basically let us have for a few days (she stayed with a friend), we dumped our luggage and then headed out for some Cordon Bleu (delicious). We walked around a bit more, had a beer or two, then dragged our feet all the way back to her apartment, where we collapsed into a 2-or-3 hour nap.

  

We woke up to her telling us that the weather was beautiful, and that we were going swimming. In the Rhine. So cool! It was actually very nice, but I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to drop the camera in the river. We took a bus upstream a bit, hopped in the river, and floated downstream for a while. It was really nice. They have these waterproof bags they use for clothes during just these occasions. Very smart. After the swim, we decided to walk around the city a bit more. Basel is in a geographically interesting location, being very close to both France and Germany (later in our stay we saw where the three countries come together – as you will see). This makes for (I think) an interesting mix of culture and language – the Basel dialect of German is apparently very different than what they speak in Germany, and often the two have some difficulty communicating.

  

On Thursday we took a train out to visit Bern (the capital) and Lucerne (another major city). Bern had some very interesting architecture that is apparently not common for Switzerland (covered sidewalks, basement stores, that sort of thing), which would have come in handy later, in Lucerne, when it started raining on us. More on that later.

  

Also in Bern, we saw the city bears! There is sort of a free zoo with a few bears in it in the middle of the city. That was really cool. We also saw the Swiss capitol building, which had some great views off the back of it (apparently the Swiss don’t really consider Bern the capital, but it just happens to be where their government members meet and whatnot). There was also a clock tower with moving parts that was slightly underwhelming, but still cool.

  

  

  

In Lucerne, we saw the famous pedestrian bridge (part of which had recently burned down, and had to be rebuilt), along with a giant stone lion and a stones-left-behind-by-a-glacier park that was too expensive to go look at.

  

It started to look like rain, so we skipped a boat ride (that we spur-of-the-moment planned) and started to head back to the train station. We juuust made it before it really got going. Back to Basel!

  

For our last full day in Switzerland, we decided to walk around Basel some more, seeing some beautiful churches and fountains and things.

  

  

Debbie had received some free tickets to Basel’s big Art festival/gallery (which happened to be going on the week we were there), so we headed over to check that out. There was so much art! I could feel the pretention and snootiness growing inside me as I appreciated more and more bricks and rocks and paint and naked people. Tip for artists – slap some exposed genitalia on something, and you’ve made instant art. Apparently.

  

After the art, Debbie mentioned there was a marker where Grance, Swermany, and Fritzerland all join up together. Something like four corners, but with only three, but with countries!? I’m in! I told her we had to see it. Little did I know that involved a fairly long bus ride and an even longer trek out in the port/harbor section of Basel. It was cool when we got there. Not cool to head back. We decided to go a different way, and ended up in some kind of shipping yard. I thought we were going to get smushed.

  

But we made it back to civilization, and ate at an Italian restaurant. Well, it was a pizzeria, but in Switzerland, so while it had pizza and pasta and things, it also had bratwurst and schnitzel and other Swiss favorites. I had a classic Swiss dish – bratwurst and has browns with an onion sauce. That is obviously not the German name for it, but I have forgotten it (big surprise). After dinner, we went out for drinks, meeting up with some friends of Debbie’s. It was a really fun time. We played Uno and had beers, and met some very friendly people whose names I don’t remember. I am not a clever man.

  

On Saturday morning, we got up, got ready, and were driven back to the airport by the friend Debbie stayed with (again, names. I’m the worst). We found the rental car place (which was on the French side of the airport), found our rental car (a very nice Citroen automatic with built-in GPS, thank god), and then found ourselves driving around in France. With Debbie and her friend still in the car. With our luggage still in the other car. Oops. Apparently it’s quite difficult to get from the French (Mulhouse) side of the airport to the Swiss (Basel) side. So after about twenty minutes of Mary driving around in France, we made it back, got our luggage, said goodbye, and headed off into the great wide (narrow and mountain-y) open. More on driving and France in the next post. Stay eager!