Sunday in ruins...

Roman Ruins, that is! Sunday morning we headed off to meet the gang at the bus stop - then rode about 10 minutes to Augst, Switzerland. It's just outside of Basel, and home of Augusta Raurica. From the bus stop, we had a lovely 10-15 minute walk:

There were 8 of us in all, and it was a fun time exploring the random ruins that have apparently been discovered and re-discovered repeatedly over the centuries.

Not the most comfortable furniture I've ever seen, but apparently child-proof:

Restored Mosaic:

After we finished roaming around, we took the 15 minute walk to the river to find a restaurant...

(on the walk to the river - I like the wall)

I was hot, the water wasn't!

Here's a bath house, right on the river:

...and wait on our 2:30 boat ride back down the river to Basel. It's a 10 minute bus ride, but an hour 1/2 boat ride. We had to go through 2 locks, which was a new experiece for most of us in the group.

Sinking!

Through the lock:

It's a gorgeous area - but I'm always a sucker for anything close to water...

Speaking of water, it's cold! But the air temp has been hitting 90 at times, so I'm hoping to get that today or tomorrow, and I'll hit the river for a swim! There's a very strong current, so I guess floating/coasting would be a more accurate description. Sort of like an almost frozen Lazy River...

Anyway, lunch was fantastic, as was the boat ride back. Which we followed up with, what else, ice cream. We are definitely putting in some miles, but it's great practice for this weekend's trip: ROME!

Mulhouse, France and other exploits of May 23, 2009

Saturday morning I hopped out of bed and headed off to the weekly Flea Market on Petersplatz. Goal: bicycle! And I found it. I bought an old, red, beat up, French bicycle from a dude who spoke no English. Fortunately, I've picked up enough key words to go along with standard hand signals to get my point across. ($200??? Are you crazy?) Eventually found a little gem that was reasonably priced, took her for a spin, and then walked her home. Yes, walked. You have to have sticker for your bike, and I'm a stickler for rules, so I walked it most of the way home. Plus I'm a clutz and did not want to die in a bicycle-meets-tram collision. I tend to fall just walking, so bicycles are a serious threat to my general well-being. So here's my new bike (with new vignette/sticker):

After this, I took it home and gave it a good scrub down while I waited on Mark to get home from work. Then we headed off to lunch and the train station - destination: France. After a short 20 minute train ride, we arrived at Mulhouse, France (pronounced Mul-huz, Frahnz).

We just wanted to check out the city, as well as the areas in between Mulhouse and the airport. A lot of people that work in Basel actually live in France due to the reduced cost in living. It was a cute place, and people did actually acknowledge us as we walked by. After roaming around through the city streets and visiting with a very nice couple selling jewelry in one of the city squares, we hopped on a tram and took a ride to see what else there was to see.

It's a fairly small, industrial area, but had some beautiful buildings and is "known" for the wall murals:

We grabbed a quick slice of pizza and some gelato and hopped back on the train to Basel. Had to get ready for Sunday - the trip to Augusta Raurica!

Basel this week...

Not a whole lot going on this week. I finally made it to our Munster. It was beautiful - I have a few pics I took before my batteries died... (today's outing consisted of finding a European battery charger!)

I always love doors, and there are some pretty spectacular ones here!

Here's the view from the church - and the steps way over there on the water's edge are where I had a picnic, read a book on Swiss culture and checked out the views.

The weather is gorgeous. Just keeps getting better.

Mark went to the States for Brit's High School graduation, and we are all very proud of her! He's back here now, and working away.

I had lunch with a friend at a local Mexican food restaurant. It was very good - especially the 11am margarita! Some food at restaurants has really been hit or miss, but I will definitely go back to this place. Did a little shopping, lots of my normal roaming around.

We miss the dogs, the kids and the house (not necessarily in that order, Britney), but all is still well in Basel!

Sunday in the park - and other great things about Basel.

So today is 80 here - sunny, slightly breezy, and just enough clouds to keep you from getting too hot. The best weather of the trip, so far. It's beautiful. So I packed a picnic and headed in what I believed to be the general direction of a large park that Mark and I passed about a week ago. Worst case, I would've ended up at some other park, they're everywhere.

I made it - it was full of kids, people paying fussball (soccer), badmitton, laying out in the sun. Even the occassional bathing suit. I'll remember that for next time!

Anyway - I spent a couple of hours laying in the sun, reading, eating and people watching.

I also got to thinking on my walk back that I haven't really posted much of Basel - so I'll attach a few photos and maybe some fun facts today.

This is the Rathaus - Basel's Town Hall (with Mark in front)

And here's Mark inside...

...and there are over 180 fountains here - all with drinkable water shooting out of them. I've had it several times. It's great. This has to be one of my very favorite fountains.

I'm sure you can see why she's my favorite.

Here are some shots of Marktplatz - it's usually jam packed, but not at 6pm on a Saturday apparently. People go to bed early here and get up early. (the Jungen (youth) come out to party around 8pm)

Yes, this is a tram headed directly for me...

I'll have to get some shots of this same platz when it's full (every other time I've been there.)

Mark and I went to the Basel Zoo last Sunday. It was pretty cool. They are in the middle of a longterm project to convert from the old-style, depressing, concrete pits to more natural habitats for the animals. The neat part is that, for the most part, they've just added the nature part to the concrete part, so the animals can come and go from outside to the airconditioned concrete inside.

This one's for you, Betherine - a baby hippo:

And it's parents, in a different exhibit:

Well, Mark's in it too. He's the cute one.

We also have taken several walks by the river. This day we actually took the little boat across from one side to the other.

That's the river, over to the right:

And here's another fountain - a Basilisk. They are the symbols/guardians of the city. They are all over - fountains, architechture, signs, you name it.

Mark, however, insists they are dragons. He is wrong. One day he will accept this. Perhaps even embrace it. Dragons DO NOT have chicken heads. Clearly, this is a basilisk.

Off to read some more about the Swiss culture. Trying to figure the folks out before it's time to go home!

Randomness in Basel

I am about half way into my 4th week here. I think it's a good time to share some random observations/facts of my time so far:

• Bright colors are very popular. Color coordination is not.
• All black is perfectly acceptable. (I blend!)
• Nose picking is also acceptable. (I don't blend.)
• People do not acknowledge you when passing you on the sidewalk/street.
• Clean/safe/timely public transportation is fantastic.
• Trams make lots of stops, but buses only make the "key" stops.
• Fresh bread at the grocery store is the best thing ever.
• I like swiss cheese. Some of it tends to smell like feet.
• American rap is big here. It's usually 6 months or more behind in popularity, however. For example, OPP is currently on the radio. Seriously.
• I can get to several places in this country by train within an hour. For less than $30 USD round trip.
• I have not found such luck in getting to Bulgaria. But I'm working on it!
• It rains frequently here, but when the weather is nice - it's unbeatable.
• I need a hammock.
• I need a porch/yard for this hammock.
• There are museums for everything here - including paper, dolls, pharmacy, cartoons, and domestic life. I will go to some, if not all, of these.
• 
• Everyone rides bicycles here. There is a school on the corner that teaches kids to ride in the streets.
• Lots of people smoke here. But I've not been anywhere that I could not get away from the smoke. Restaurants tend to at least have a non-smoking section - if not ban smoking completely.
• Even the teenagers smoke.
• Other than smoking, people seem to be very health concious.
• The legal drinking age is 16 for wine, beer and cider. It's 16-18 for hard stuff - depending on your Canton (basically a county.)
• Lots of people have "Ronald McDonald" red hair. Not purple or slightly red - RONALD MCDONALD.
• Speaking of, McDonald's is good here. But a value menu costs between 10-15 francs.
• It's cheaper to eat lunch at McD's than almost anywhere else.
• Basel is about even with Seattle, Washington and lots of places in Canada latitude (or longitude?)-wise.
• I have a feeling Winter will be cold!
• Summer is from July to September, so it's still Spring here.
• Now techno is playing on the radio.
• You don't have a trash bill here, but you do have to buy very specific, and somewhat pricey, trash bags. The cost of the trash bags covers the cost of trash service. I like it.
• Nothing really has preservatives.
• I am forced to shop daily for food, or else it would go bad.
• I can walk to just about any kind of store you can imagine. Even some you can't.
• Stores do not have shopping bags. You must bring your own, or buy a reusable bag when you get there.
• You must bag your own groceries - and you better be quick about it.
• Pedestrians always have the right of way. Unless there's a tram...
• People in cars ALWAYS stop for pedestrians. And they don't get upset about it.
• Nothing is open on Sundays. Except for bakeries, really early, because everyone needs their daily bread.
• Now a reggae/rap concoction is on...

Have a great Friday!

Bern, Switzerland - Another trip with the girls!

Dawn's husband is working here as well (thank goodness we are not alone here!) and we've been able to play while the boys are at work. Her daughter, Ashley, has been in town this week for a visit. We've been able to cram an incredible amount of exploring - and an even more impressive amount of food - into the past few days! Monday we went to Luzern and explored the city - this was briefly covered in the last post. We headed to Bern on Tuesday. Let me explain a little about "headed to" in Basel. We met each morning at the local train station about 8:30am. For me, this requires walking a couple of blocks, catching a tram, taking it two stops and switching over to a bus. This bus then takes me to the local bus/tram/train station. From there, we just pick a destination, buy a ticket (fortunately they have an English option on the ticket machines, because none of us are remotely fluent in Swiss German!). Then we find the gate (gleise) and board our train. Each destination we chose was about an hour away on the fast train. So we get to chat, eat and look out the giant windows at the gorgeous scenery.

So, back to Bern. We did a tiny bit of research before getting there, and had a short list of things to do. The main attraction in Bern is the bear pit. After that, we decided we'd hit the Munster and check out the Clock Tower. We were very impressed by the amount of shopping, and slowly worked our way across the town towards the bear pit via several small shops.

Now, I've been studying German for a few weeks, and one of my study methods is to try to learn a new word each day. Tuesday's word, as it turns out, was "tot". We got to the famed bear pit, worked our way around the small tour group and found a good view of the pit. The empty pit. I mosied off to try and find out if there was an "inside" were the bears were on display while Dawn and Ash looked around the pit. They ran across a sign that said "Pedro ist tot". Now, being American, we assume that this has something to do with a toddler. Is Pedro a new bear that's inside with his mother? This was getting more exciting by the minute! Until they read the english translation below... "Pedro is dead". German word for the day: tot = dead. Now, this was not at all what we were expecting, but being the resilient tourists that we are, we made the best of it by finding a good spot for our picnic while we mourned Pedro's very recent demise.

After what seemed to be an appropriate amount of grieving (ie. eating), we headed back down the mountain to the Munster. (While it may technically have been a hill, I am from the south and as far as I'm concerned it was a mountain!)

While the girls hung out in a park outside the church - - I decided I had to climb to the top of the church's tower. It was only 344 steps one way. Big deal, right? Yeah - until about half way up the tiny, twisting, steep, torturous staircase when I started to question who's bright idea this was. (Ashley?!?) Obviously, I am not the only one to find the steps somewhat difficult. This was immediately inside the door at the first landing:Just so happens I found a widow about then. The view from that respectively low spot was great and encouraged me to continue the climb. It was worth it!

Going down the stairs was not nearly so traumatic. (My calves may argue that - they were shaking when I got to the bottom!) And I headed into the church to check it out in all of its awesomeness:

By this point a storm was blowing in. We made our way, via a bakery or two, back to the train station to head home.

Now I'm off to relax!