We were all suddenly awoken this morning by the 7 AM church bells, from directly across the street. They rang for what seemed like half an eternity, but was probably more like 3 or 4 straight minutes.
(This is the bell-tower view from the Airbnb balcony, taken tonight just before sunset.)
I guess Sabrina, Susan, and Laura got up when the bells commanded it, and went to their conference. I slept in, had breakfast on the balcony, and went out to find a coffee shop.
Naturally, I put my house slippers in the bin with our bedroom number on it, on the way out.
Just down the street from the apartment, I found a cafe (Sutter Begg) at Neuweilerplatz, where I enjoyed caffeine and a pastry called a "brezel nuss" (translates to "pretzel nut"?).
Some time after lunch, I took the tram/bus down towards the university to find the conference-goers. Our afternoon objective was to find the Dreiländereck, which is the tri-point where Switzerland, Germany, and France meet (technically in the middle of the Rhine).
We walked down to the river, in search of a bridge to cross.
I can't find any specific count of the number of fountains in this city, but there must be hundreds of them. The conference-goers received water bottles and assurances of the potability of the fountain water, so I felt comfortable drinking from them today.
As the far bank of the river is much more walkable, we crossed the Rhine on the Mittlere Brücke (first bridge).
As the name suggests, it was the first bridge over the river here, although it has been rebuilt.
Along the river walk, one finds these charming public toilets.
These little guys are everywhere; Basel seems to have an obsession with basilisks.
It was partly cloudy and a bit cool, so there weren't many floaters in the river today. Also because it's Monday, probably.
Swimming is only permitted in certain areas, per this helpful sign. I think it would be easy to be swept into the Danger Zone, due to the swift current.
Just passed the end of the swim zone, the area along the river was less "tourist" and more "industrial rail yard", intermixed with docked river cruise boats.
At one point, we walked through some sort of art community shantytown, which 30 seconds of research suggests is Camp Basel and/or Holzpark Klybeck.
There were several small cafes, bars, and restaurants mixed in, some of which were built into shipping containers.
It was all quite tranquil, perhaps due to it being Monday late afternoon, but perhaps you can use your imagination about what it's like on a Friday night.
Across the river, the French side appeared to be an industrial zone, although there might have been a walking/biking path along the river.
As we approached Dreiländereck, Google's route took us through a recycling yard, where the side of the road was stacked high with aluminum ingots the size of... bathtubs? wheelbarrows maybe?
The road was under construction, and there may have been signs (that we couldn't read) suggesting it was impassable to foot traffic. Undeterred, we made a run for the border.
The Dreiländereck monument is out at the end of a peninsula, visible across the water from the edge of a harbor by the border.
It's the spiky thing that looks like a missile, technically on the Swiss side of the tri-point.
Rather suddenly, after skirting around the perimeter of a construction site, we found what was clearly the border with Germany.
There's a shopping mall, literally on the border; the plaza and park in front of it were bustling with foot traffic, in stark contrast to the last mile of our walk.
It's obvious that people cross the border just to go shopping, as the tram from downtown stops directly in front of the mall.
We went in to see what all of the excitement was about, and took a stroll through Marktkauf to get a snack. What appeared to be just a large grocery store turned out to be a multi-story, Costco-esque mega mart.
Leaving the mall, we once again crossed the Rhine, into France, via the Three Countries Bridge.
The weather had improved markedly, and it was starting to get hot out. We were all somewhat overdressed, from the cool morning.
Wikipedia informs me that this bridge is "the world's longest single-span bridge dedicated exclusively to carrying pedestrians and cyclists", which seems oddly specific.
The bridge offered another view of the monument on the peninsula, with downtown Basel to the right.
On the French side, we arrived in the main square of Huningue.
The town almost seemed deserted, and it was only 4 PM. We had half of a vague plan to stick around and eat dinner in France, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't a realistic option.
We made a rest stop at a bakery/cafe/chocolatier, and decided to head back to Basel. Total time spent in France: approximately one hour. About the same in Germany, too.
Having walked 3 or 4 miles from the university to our current location, we opted to walk back to the mall and take the tram back to downtown Basel. It was 5:30 PM when we got there.
I had seen reference to St. Alban Tal on a website about Basel neighborhoods, and the tourism website refers to it as the "Little Venice of Basel", so we walked along the river in that general direction.
The walking path ended at a locked gate, however, so we had to backtrack and go the urban route.
We wandered through the St. Alban church grounds, heading into (our best guess at) the heart of "Little Venice".
While looking for a dinner venue, we navigated the maze of narrow streets, over the small river running through/under the buildings.
There weren't many choices; we went with Zum Goldenen Sternen (Golden Star Tavern).
Monday night, it turns out, is "BBQ night"; they had a grill set up in the garden out back, offering a selection of the animal kingdom.
Per the waitress, here we have beef, chicken, pork, little sheep, and several kinds of sausage. I think she called one of them "baby beef". Everyone else got fish.
The sun was starting to set as we walked back towards the old part of town, to catch the tram up to the Airbnb. It was 8 PM by then.
It was almost 9 by the time we got back to base. My iPhone reports 20,000 steps and over 8 miles walked today. Sabrina, Susan, and Laura walked farther, as they had walked down to the conference this morning. We're all worn out, and tired of climbing stairs.
Tomorrow, there's more conference to attend. The weather forecast looks better.
No comments:
Post a Comment