Wandering in Basel

On Sunday and Monday everything in Switzerland slows down. Restaurants are pretty much the only things that are open and public transporation is reduced. I hitchhiked into Listal from Nuglar because the next scheduled bus was in hour-and-a-half. At Listal Bahnhof I noticed that everyone was running towards a train so I followed suit and, while running, confirmed that the train was headed to Basel.

Ten minutes later, after a ride mainly through a tunnel, I was in Basel and I realized that I had forgotten my benoted Basel city map. Mainly I wanted to go the the Kirkstmuseum because there was free admission today, the first Sunday of the month (but I had forgotten the name and the general location of the museum).

I took the tram downtown and not wanting to spend too much money, because everything is expensive in Switzerland (Basel McDonalds 'value meals' are around $9USD), I wandered through the city following a poor tourist office map from the train station.

Snacking on marioni (roasted chestnuts) from a street vendor, who are all over every european city in during the holiday season, I strolled through a few museums that weren't so interesting. The best part was the downtown area around the Rhine where I sat on a bench, enjoying marioni, and watching all kinds of interesting people jogging, socializing, listening to 80's style boom boxes, and soaking up the sun that had decided to show itself after a few foggy days.

The people were all dressed very well. I felt a little under dressed in my t-shirt, nylon zip-off-to-shorts pants, and trainers. I'm getting pretty tired of having the same set of clothes to pick from everyweek but everything that I brought is holding up quite well (a little mending to my pants was necessary in Poznan).

Crossing one of the bridges and taking some pictures [01] [02] [03] , I noticed a guy wearing a Sierra Nevada Beer T-shirt. I was hoping to reminisce about college with him but he had only gotten the shirt on a trip through norcal that stopped at the brewery...

After three random days, Basel wasn't as exciting as I thought it might be. It was much more industrial and less cultural than people had told me.

Did you go to Chico State? I'm off to Switzerland next summer 7/15/2004. I'd like to hike, not the Matterhorn, but the area. Did you maske it to the Homli Hut? Was the lift worth getting higher and a good start for the balance of the hike?

Wanna comment?