Making Base in Basel

Roche Tower, tallest skyscraper in Switzerland, along the Rhine

I am about to give Switzerland a full run-through. Mike and I find high school friend Chris and his wife Chandni in Basel for two days. Chris kindly picked us up at the train station after arriving exactly on time from Paris. After the weekend in Basel, we will join back up with Mark in Lucerne. The three of us will leave Switzerland for Munich. From there, Mike and Mark move on together to Amsterdam, a city I had hit about a month prior. Meanwhile, I put the brakes on my trip and flip back to Basel. Retaining Chris's home as my home for six days, I spend three of those days taking rides out to Bern, Zurich, and Lӧrrach.

The hammering man/woman/thing of Basel

An extremely clean city, Basel has a few attractions and quirks to it. The public fountains can all be used for swimming and bathing, and their spouts all dispense drinkable water. Other Swiss cities do the same with their fountains. The fountains kept me easily hydrated through the hot days.

15th century "Spalentor" gateway

Basel has quiet hours; the city gets eerily quiet after 2200, I think it is, and all day Sunday. Some bars will be open after quiet hours start, but even those are well-behaved.

Rathaus Basel-Stadt

Basler Münster cathedral

The highlight of Basel is the river which welcomes swimming. The Rhine river through Basel floats you 3.5 kilometers in about a half-hour. It is a common lunchtime activity to change into your swimsuit, pack all your stuff into a watertight flotation-device "fish bag", and dive right in. Boats know they must keep to south/west bank while people cling to the north/east side. I took the plunge twice, once alone and once with Mike, Chris, and Chandni.

Me, Chris, Chandni, and Mike drying off after getting out of the River.

Nights along the river at Les Trois Rois, a famous 5-star hotel

Tinguely Brunnen Carnival Fountain

Playing second fiddle to the Rhine, Basel's Kunstmuseum is the other must-do in the city. This fine arts museum features three separate buildings, making it the largest public art collection in Switzerland. The second of the buildings has special exhibits on rotation. I was being very stingy with my money in Switzerland given the high costs of EVERYTHING and now I regret not purchasing admission to the Cézanne special exhibit since I like his art a lot. The main building was filled mostly with paintings and the third building showed artsy videos.

This is good art. Don't argue with me!
"Le Boulevard de Pontoise à Argenteuil" by Monet

This museum groups its art by style. It provides a strong introduction to many styles and the connections between them for the novice. I could practically pick out the moment Impressionists lost their touch.

Van Gogh . Still good.

OK Picasso, now you're losing me.

Surrealists rarely do things right, but Scholz gets it right here.
"Deutsche Kleinstadt bei Nacht" by Georg Scholz

And now we have the minimalism that nobody likes.
Seriously, if somebody can explain to me what's to like from Mondrian, I want to hear it.

There were two other artists whose work I especially liked, but the museum forbade pictures of their work. Michaël Borremans had fun little black and white sketches of people and Daniela Brahm had neat depictions of unique examples of architecture on display. I encourage the reader to explore their work, both are living and active artists.

Mike's at a loss for what these videos meant. So was I.

As I said at the start of this post, I leave Basel for Lucerne at this point, after exhausting Basel with Mike. I have purchased my flights to and from Japan by now for a convenient span of time at the cheapest available rate. The departure date meant that I had a few days to burn, so I return to Chris's friendly face and apartment after Munich. Chandni cooks a couple more scrumptious dinners which I devour in between my bouncing to other major Swiss cities. I will cover those cities in posts in due time. But as for the rest of my time in Basel itself, I rejuvenate, take another swim in the Rhine, and make a new friend.

Welcome to Burgruine Rötteln in Lörrach

That new friend is my mom's friend and coworker at Roche in the Basel branch, Kasia. She picked me up from Chris's one day to take me out to the Lӧrrach castle ruins about a half hour away into Germany. This was my first and only time in a car my entire trip: no taxis of any sort! And to make getting there a real joy, we drove a couple miles on the famous German Autobahn. Such freedom. We didn't spend long at the castle before moving on to a bit of a nature walk through the surrounding fields and woods. After working up an appetite sweating in the sun on our walk, she also treated me to a nice nearby dinner where I gorged myself on buttery steak and fries. Thank you, Kasia!

The castle was built in the 11th century and ruined in the 17th.

Next I will tell you about the exciting part of Switzerland, the best reason anybody would go to Switzerland: the mountains. It's the summer, so we won't be skiing, but rather climbing. Stay tuned for Lucerne and the great Swiss Alps.

P.S. Gramma, I'm sorry but your terrific light-up pen ran out of ink here in Basel, so I exchanged it for one of Chris's regular ballpoint pens. I was writing with it a ton in my journal, I made good use of it.

Shoutout to Wesley.

Largest free samples I've ever seen.