BASEL /Switzerland - everything else but boring!

After three years back to Basel/Switzerland for research for an update of our Reise Know-How CityTrip Basel. We took the train, with the German 9-Euro ticket. Almost 5.5 hours one way, and, sometimes "standing room only", but we made it. Basel borders Germany and France and has two railroad stations, a German one and a Swiss/France one. We stayed in a great hotel, the Gaia Hotel and had a wonderful, diverse program arranged by Basel Tourism. We started out with a streetart/mural tour (pics below) after arrival, followed by a dinner druise on the river Rhine in the evening.

Food Tour on the next day, Friday, a self-guided walking tour with vouchers at different stations, a foodhall, a store, a "Leckerli" producer(the speciality of Basel, similar to gingerbread) and a cafe/bakery. In the afternoon: Tinguely Museum - a permanent exhibition of Jean Tinguely's (1925–1991) kinetic artworks. Museum Tinguely, designed by Mario Botta, is located directly at the Rhine and presents the world’s largest collection of his work, from the early reliefs to the monumental machine sculptures of the 1980s, rumbling and squeaking and rattling,,,

A swim in the Rhine - our next adventure! We got our "Wickelfische", special waterproof-bags to store clothing and valuables, and let us drive for about 2 kilometers through bridges, passing the "Floss" stage (a stage constructed in the river for the so-named festival in the evening and big freighters on the other "lanes".

Morning: fleamarket, old town, cathedral (Muenster), city hall, little narrow alleys and beautiful historic framework architecture, fountains and courtyards.

Next stop after a great lunch at ZaZaa, a lebanese soulfood restaurant, at the brandnew Novartis Pavillon, with an exhibition called "World of Medicine", which was a bit overwhelming: about the pharmaceutical company itself, about Basel, about the development and experimentation with new medicine, about diseases etc. - all presented in latest technique.

From there, passing a basketball tournament on to Erlenmatt, another interesting neighborhood. There, a former "silo" used for storage of grain, coffee and cocoa in the past (situated along the railroad tracks), was cleverly transformed into a hostel-restaurant-meeting space. The whole neighborhood is coming up and growing, the project of the Silo itself is interesting, since its operated by young talents.

Evening: A great dinner at Cantina Don Camillo in the old Warteck brewery's building (photo), then on to the Beerfestival in St. Johann, met with the boys from the "Braubude Basel", had some beers of some of the 19 present breweries of Basel and surroundings. The Floss Festival was ongoing, concerts every evening, in a vibrant, unusual atmosphere on the Rhine Riverboard!

Sunday, after a visit in the unique Cartoon Museum and in the Paper Museum we had to say farewell to Basel. There is a lot going on, a lot happening! Well worth a visit, anytime!