Apparently after posting every single day the week before last I was slightly burned out, hence no post at all last week! We also had Jan’s dad staying this weekend so there wasn’t really time for the blogosphere. I promise to come and read everyone’s blogs soon though!
The day after we went to the Rhine Falls with my mum and brother, I took them to Mariastein Abbey and the ruins of the Landskron castle. My photos from that day aren’t much different to the ones here though, so I will move straight on to July when Jan’s mum and her partner were visiting. We decided to climb up the tower of Basel Cathedral, which I hadn’t even known was possible until then! It was a gorgeous sunny day, which made for some great views:
Roofs, Rhine and Mittlerer Brücke (“Middle Bridge”)
Wettsteinbrücke (bridge), the Rhine and the Roche tower
Markthalle dome on the left, the white church on the hill is St. Margarethen
The other tower and the Rhine
Basel rooftops
The red tower in the last picture is part of the town hall (Rathaus) and the interesting looking roof at the front is the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Cultures).
It was nice to see the roof of the cathedral up close – I think it’s really pretty!
A roof with a view
Finally, some photos of the gargoyles. They always amuse me 🙂
And once again I was left thinking “Wow, I actually live here!”.
The two towers of Basel Cathedral – Georgsturm and Martinsturm – can be climbed any time that the cathedral is open for a fee of 5 francs (payable at the information desk).
When I was first speaking to my brother about where he would like to go while visiting us, Basel was one of the places he specifically asked to visit as he’d never been to Switzerland before. It’s within perfect day tripping distance from Karlsruhe and I wanted to eat fondue in Switzerland anyway, so I was happy with his choice. there is an express train from Karlsruhe to Basel which takes about an hour and a half, but we decided to drive down. We parked near the Badische Bahnhof, which is a joint operation between Deutsche Bahn and Swiss rail, meaning it is covered by the German rail pass, the Schönes Wochenende Ticket and the Baden-Württemberg ticket. The latter two can only be used on regional trains though, which will increase the journey time to one and a half hours from Karlsruhe and mean changing trains at least once (in Offenburg or Freiburg). From the Badische Bahnhof it is roughly a 20 minute walk into town.
Crosing the River Rhine on our way into town
Our first stop in town was at Basel Cathedral. It was a hot day and we were quite glad of the relative coolness inside the church! The first picture below is of the square in front of the cathedral (taken facing away from the cathedral)… one of those buildings is a school, believe it or not!
Münsterplatz/Cathedral Square
The cathedral
Basel Cathedral
By the time we’d finished with the cathedral, we were starting to get hungry so we headed off in search of some lunch. I’ve already written about our search for fondue here. After lunch, we continued our walk around the city and came to a small market where there was a stand selling frozen yoghurt. Despite our big lunch, we all agreed that a nice, cold frozen yoghurt would go down well (I told you it was a hot day!). I chose forest fruits as my topping.
It must be yummy… the carton says so 😉
Frozen yoghurts consumed, we headed up to Theaterplatz for a look at the Tinguely Fountain, a water feature consisting of slightly bizarre machine structures in a large pool. It’s quite fascinating! Jean Tinguely was born in Basel but later moved to France. This fountain was installed in 1977.
A walk through the narrow mediavel alleyways of the old town is a must while in Basel, so that’s what we did next. This area is beautiful, and you’ll occasionally see something unusual too… like a model rhino?!
Basel old town
I have no idea!!
Our walk through the old town eventually lead us to Marktplatz – Market Square – and the town hall. I couldn’t get far enough aways to get a decent picture of the front with my tiny camera, so I stole the first two photos below from my brother 😉 Phones with their wide screens are much better for getting photos of long things! The sculpture in the inner courtyard is called “Enemies United”.
Basel town hall
Enemies United at Basel Rathaus
Basel town hall
After checking out the town hall from all angles, we decided to leave Basel and take the scenic route back to Karlsruhe through the countryside. Then we headed to one of my favourite places in Karlsruhe for some cocktails. I also decided to have a mango and avocado salad, which came with walnuts and parmesan. Not a combination that would ever have occurred to me, but it was delicious! The perfect end to a lovely day.
So tasty!
~ I am counting Basel as my August 2014 trip for the Take 12 Trips challenge ~
Confuzzledom 