Rheinfelden and Augusta Raurica

Wow, my last post got a bit deep, didn’t it? I think it’s about time I counteracted that with another travel post.

In September, Jan’s dad came to visit us for a weekend and we took a day trip to Rheinfelden and Kaiseraugst. I’ve already shared photos of Rheinfelden on the blog once, but our last visit was in December. This time the sky was a lot less grey!

We didn’t cross over into the German Rheinfelden on this visit (it’s really not worth it, except to say you walked across a border), but we did go onto the little island that can be accessed from the bridge.

It was a boiling hot day and plenty of people (and dogs!) were bathing in the river.

Once we’d seen enough of the island, it was time to head back to the train station and on to Kaiseraugst, home of the Augusta Raurica Roman site.

We walked for ages through farmland, the sun baking us alive and birds circling overhead.

We spied a fruit tree as we walkd through the fields

Eventually we spied some Roman ruins. This is the ruins of a temple:

We had been following signs for the amphitheatre because we thought that was what we wanted to see. Turns out there isn’t much left of the amphitheatre:

Kaiseraugst

What we were actually looking for was just the plain old theatre, so that’s where we headed next.

Aha… that’s more like it!

Kaiseraugst Roman theatre

 

Augusta Raurica hosts events throughout the summer (including a Roman festival) and on this particular day they were setting up for a concert. Luckily we managed to get in and have a look around before they blocked off the entrances.

Kaiseraugst ampitheatre

There’s also an indoor museum area (with a Roman house), which we did not go into, and a few other Roman bits and bobs dotted around.

After enjoying a nice cold beer, we walked back towards town past the train station and down to the river… instead of taking another train, the plan was to travel back to Basel by boat. We had a bit of time to spare, so we took off our shoes and stood on some steps with our feet in the water. It was lovely and refreshing!

The Rhine by Kaiseraugst

The boat back to Basel passes through two locks, at the Augst and Birsfelden run-of-the-river power plants.

This post is getting rather long, so I’ll only include a few of the photos I took during our boat trip. Also, until we were actually approaching Basel I have no idea where the majority of the photos were taken.

Our boat was the Christoph Merian, for those who are interested.

Leaving Kaiseraugst

The first lock – Augst

Exiting the lock

First signs of autumn

Germany, I think?

Leaving lock two, at Birsfelden

Hello Basel!

Basel! It was still very warm, so plenty of people were in the water.

Almost there…

About to dock at Schifflande

All in all it was a lovely day out and one I would definitely take again if future visitors showed an interest.

This was my September trip for Take 12 Trips 2016 (I’m slowly catching up!)

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And they sailed away for a year and a day…

In the course of my wanderings through the blogosphere I’ve come across some great people. Amazing, funny, crazy and daring people. People who write brilliant blogs, make me laugh and make me think. People who inspire me and make me believe that anything is possible.

One of these people is the hilariously funny Home Office Mum, whose blog you can read here.
Now, Home Office Mum is the mother of two small and rather boisterous boys. She also runs her very own business. She combines the running of her very own business with taking care of the aforementioned small and boisterous boys. You’d think with all that going on life would be challenging enough – I mean, I can barely look after myself never mind two small boys and a business. But no. Home Office Mum has decided to take on a new challenge. Something ambitious. Something awe-inspiring.  Something exciting. Something, quite possibly, insane. She’s only gone and signed up to take part in the Clipper Round the World Race. So come September she’ll be setting sail from England to Brazil in a boat that’s probably neither pea-green nor beautiful.

The thing is, in order to complete this ocean adventure she’s going to need your help. First of all you need to head on over to her new blog, moretolifethanlaundry.com and give her as much encouragement as you possibly can. That shouldn’t be too difficult – after all, it is a fairly incredibly thing she’s doing. While you’re over there it would be fabulously wonderful if you could hit the donate button on the right hand side and give her a hand with the raising of the funds. ‘Cause taking part in a challenge like this doesn’t come cheap. She’s not asking for much – just 2 tiny little English pounds for each mile she sails, and one of those pounds shall be donated to charity so you’ll even be doing your bit to help sick and disabled children. Sounds marvellous, doesn’t it? So what are you still doing here? Get on over to More to Life Than Laundry and help a blogger out…

Long weekend

It’s been a very long weekend. Jan’s parents were here because on Friday he had his kind of graduation… not a graduation in the sense that we know it from England but there was a small ceremony with speeches followed by food, free beer and live music. The speech part was pretty boring but the rest was fun.

Yesterday we went to Strasbourg where we had a boat trip on the river, then today we went to the DDR museum in Pforzheim before Jan’s parents left to drive back home. Tonight I’ve been out for a meal with my colleagues. We went to Stövchen, a very student friendly restaurant/pub in Karlsruhe. I had Flammkuchen, or “tarte flambe” as they call it in Alsace, where it comes from. Very busy weekend with lots of early starts and long days. I’m now exhausted, which is why I’m keeping this blog short. It’s definitely past Bev’s bedtime…