Traveling Tramps: "This is Basel"

,,, that's the slogan of Basel, the Swiss city located on the boards of the river Rhine, in a border triangle: Germany, France and Switzerland. Different mentalities, cultures, languages, people merge here. It's not too far away from Lake Constance, and, for us, it was a 6-hour train trip (one-way) to get there, but just because we used our cheap Germany train ticket and were only allowed to use slow trains.

Anyway, it was an easy trip to get there to do research for another (the 9th!) update of our Basel CityTrip guidebook at Reise Know-How Verlag. We've been in Basel a dozen times, starting in 2007, a year before the European Soccer World Championships took place in Basel and other Swiss and Austrian cities. Soccer and the famous FCB are still a big deal in Basel.

This time we choose different angles and focused on different topics, assisted excellently, as always, by Basel Tourism. We had a full itinerary, and, walked an average of 12-15 km a day at 90+ deg F, plus many miles on streetcars. We enjoyed our stay thoroughly.

On our arrival day, in the late afternoon, after having checked into the comfortable, friendly Hotel Spalentor, we first checked out historic old town and adjacent neighborhoods, with it's idyllic little pathways, fortification towers and fountains. Some impressions below:

Spalentor

Famous Red City Hall

Spalenvorstadt

St. Alban Vorstadt

Baslisk fountain

Fantastic beer and creative food

In the evening we started with one of our main "topics" on this trip: beer in Basel. We had a beer tour after an early dinner at the Fischerstube, one of the older, established restaurants in town. Also, this restaurant is the "homebase" of Ueli Beer, one of the pioneers in Switzerland in the 1970s, reintroducing more beer variety again. With our guide Beat and a small group of Swiss beer connaisseurs we explored four Basel breweries, partly walking, partly taking the streetcar, which is very punctual, clean, air-conditioned in Basel. Went from Ueli to BBB (Braubude Basel) - a "private club" brewing beer – to Matt & Elly (great IPAs!), and concluded our tasting and tour at Volta Bräu closeby the Novartis campus.

Matt & Elly

"The pioneer" in Basel's beer sceneVolt

Our knowledgeable beer tour guide Beat Aellen


Bar at Volta Bräu

Staying with beer: The next day we had a tour at "Unser Bier" (below), another fascinating concept: a corporation whose stocks are in high demand. Dividends are given in beer at a big annual party. Unfortunately, this brewery with its pub is only open for stock holders and for groups, but we were fortunate and had a tour & tasting with the (Bavarian) brewmaster (photo below).

Evening: The 10th Basel Biermarkt (below) is an annual event with about 20 breweries from the region presenting their beers to the general public. You walk from booth to booth with your glass in hand and get samples for tokens you've bought before. Food is being served as well. Great beers, creative breweries!

Beer is one thing Basel is excellent at, same for food. There are traditional regional and Swiss specialities, food from all over the world, and saisonal and locally produced ingredients are on almost every menu. Prices may be high, but quality is right! We had a couple of wonderful dinners in different restaurants - more local, down-to-earth at Fischerstuben, mediterranean at Le Rhin Bleu and fine dining at Taverne Johann.

Cheese platter at Fischerstuben

Truffle Ravioli at Taverne Johann

Venison bratwurst at Johann

Chicken with pancetta at Le Rhin Bleu

Art & Culture

Basel had a long tradition with art, architecture and museums. One example: the Kunstmuseum Basel (photo on the left) – where in 1967 the first Picasso was exhibited .

Sculpture - like the famous "Hammering Man" - or architecture, like in the Dreispitz Areal, murals (below: Gerbergässlein) and a beautiful concert hall, the Stadt Casino, recently renovated and expanded (we had a tour there!) – Basel has it all!

Riehen, a suburb of Basel, is home to the famous Fondation Beyeler, a modern art museum, surrounded by a park (photos below). Across the street, in the Kuenstlerhaus, Claire Ochsner is exhibiting her colorful artwork (photo furthest below).