River city with fantastic art, design and architecture: Basel

 

Other than last year, when we visited Basel end of August, we weren't as fortunate this time! Instead getting wet from swimming in the river Rhine, we got wet from above. Several times. Made the best of the situation, and, had some good new experiences!

 Besides checking the city for new developments and changes, we discovered several new things: 

 

Culinarily: Volta Brewery (below) ,,, great beers and good food as well (though, as everything in Switzerland, not inexpensive!).

Second, the now-open-to-the-public Novartis campus (great architecture!) with its new exhibition pavillon and its fantastic architecture on the grounds of the company, formerly, only accessible during tours:

Third, the Vitra Design Museum & campus in nearby Weil am Rhein. Have been there before, but this time we wanted to see an exhibition they are currently showing:  "Garden Futures. Designing with Nature" (photo below). 

Also, we hadn't seen the new garden yet, which was designed by Piet Oudolf and opened in 2020 (second photo below). Oudolf was responsible for the gorgeous Lurie Gardens in Chicago, which we just visited in May! 

 

Schaulager - architecture by Zaha Hadid

Schaulager-exhibition

Vitra House

The new greenhouse of Botanischer Garten der Universität Basel, founded in 1589. This latest addition  just recently opened as a "tropical greenhouse" and was another highlight for us:

This time not much opportunity to watch the locals sitting at the Rheinbord, sipping some "apero" due to inclement weather, but it's always good to get a feeling for a city, for its changes and news. and, we took profit of every short period of sunshine! Oh, and for a change, the Basler Muenster (below), the famous cathedral, was not hidden behind some scaffolding!

 

An oldie, but goodie, is the Spalenvorstadt with the Spalentor, a neighborhood with a variety of shops and boutiques:

Also, the art scene of Basel is always fascinating, from big murals to "little things" many visitors possibly miss to notice:

And, though the farmers market on City Hall Square - city hall in the background - wasn't really big on that day, the Markthalle at SBB railroad station is a nice new foodhall, especially, when it rains outside!

To our full surprise, and, especially after our experiences on the previous Salzburg trip, trains were on time, not packed, rather functional. On the way back home we stopped in Lindau (photo below), on Lake Constance, for an Andy Warhol exhibition, which was nice, but small, and, the location was not really well chosen for Warhols large formats.