Basel: Sat 7 – Mon 9 Sept: Accommodation
Sat 7th Sept
It was a glorious morning for our drive down to Basel and forecast to be another warm one with a temperature of 30 degrees. Mark had an early ride before our departure and I had a final walk. It was very nervous going for the first half hour or so as the Sydney Swans were trying to fight back in their first game of the finals. Luckily for me they ended up winning or this 3 hour road trip might have ended up very differently.
We stopped off at Riquewihr on the way as this was supposed to be one of the most beautiful medieval villages in the Alsace region. And that it was! With its narrow cobbled lanes and magnificent, tightly-packed half timbered buildings that dated back to the 15-18th century. We only spent an hour or so there, sightseeing and grabbing a quick bite to eat, but we took lots of photos; it’s that kind of place. The small village was packed with loads of other tourists all doing much the same: eating and / or snapping away.
It was almost 2 pm by the time we got away for the one hour drive to Basel. We were somewhat surprised on our drive down to Switzerland that we didn’t see any mountains. It was all still rather flat which was a bit disappointing and the approach into Basel was a bit underwhelming.
We arrived at our hotel near 3 pm and found we had a lovely room on a high floor that was flooded with light when we entered which was pleasing. Luckily we had air/con here as it was 30 degrees outside. I was kind of thinking I’d be happy just sitting in my room for the next 36 hours but a quick review of the map revealed we were pretty close to most of Basel’s major sightseeing spots.
It was close to 4 pm before we set off outside again and we decided to use one of the three the GPSmyCity walking guides for Basel to fill in a bit of time before dinner. We ended up down at the Rhine where we encountered a funny sight with loads of swimmers floating, carrying bags of their clothes, for miles down the river. This was providing a lot of entertainment to the general masses of tourists gathered in the area.
Our guided walk gave us a pretty good overview of central Basel before we eventually collapsed on to some seats at a bar around 6 pm. I had already walked 12 km for the day and I was hot and tired and, whilst there were no mountains around the perimeter of Basel that we could see, there were hills to navigate within the city; it was uphill and down dale. Thankfully, it was forecast to be much cooler tomorrow for our walking tour with a maximum of only about 23°. It was a bit of a lottery choosing a dinner venue but I feel we scored a decent prize with Anatolia as this served up a delicious meal for me of prawns and vegetables. That was twice in two days so things are definitely looking up.
Sun 19th Sept
It was a slow start to the day as we both slept in until 7 am; a very rare event in our household. Our walking tour didn’t start until 10 am and that suited us just fine.
Our walk was supposed to be with Free Walk Basel but no one turned up, not even the guide. Luckily for us the Basel Tourist Office was just nearby so we called in there and booked into an 11 am walking tour with This is Basel and a 1:30 pm bus tour as both tours covered quite different ground. Our walking tour guide, Rolf, explained that Basel had been an area know for its naturally dyed and intricately patterned ribbon production from the 16th century but, after the world wars, this practice evolved into synthetic dye production which led on to development of the chemical industry and then pharmaceutical industry which is Basels main industry today. Roche and Novartis and two of the large phara industries based in Basel but the area is also know in general for life sciences and bio-medical engineering. Take note Tom! Both tours gave an interesting oversight of the history of the city and I’d highly recommend them if you’re ever in the area.
Our bus tour finished up at around 3.30 pm and we did a bit more exploring before heading back to our hotel for Mark to have a beer. It was then back to our room to rest for a bit before dinner which we were also having at our hotel. Our meals at L‘Atelier proved to be one of the best we’d ever had and this was despite being a hotel restaurant! The place was very busy, despite being a Sunday night, and is a restaurant I would urge as a must-visit if you’re ever in the area.
We had enjoyed our short visit to Basel and would recommend our hotel, and of course their bar and restaurant. The city is easily walkable, although there are some hills to navigate. All of the Swiss we encountered were friendly and helpful and all had excellent English making our lives much easier. Tomorrow we head further south to Annecy, France.
