May 23-24 in Basel (w/pictures)

Well the Europe adventure begins...

It begins with an hour delay in leaving Omaha and then a 3 hour delay in leaving Newark... we finally take off about 8:30 PM Omaha time but I had no complaints because there was talk of cancelling the flight which would have delayed us who knows how long.

The rest of the flight was thankfully uneventful and I arrived in Zurich about 10:30 local time which makes it about 3:30 AM Omaha time.  My sister's proven way to battle jet lag is to get out and get some sun especially that first day so Jenny and I headed out to an old (built in 1019) church called the Munster to climb the bell tower for a look at Basel.

This is one of the more major streets in Basel.  The red building is one of their government buildings.  Notice all the bikes - it is a very bike friendly city.

This is the 'Munster'.

These are the stairs to the bell tower. Yes, the stairs really were this steep!  And further up it was almost totally dark.  

The old bell with a poor picture of Jenny for scale.

The roofs are often very decorative too.  This is the mosaic tiled roof of the church.

A more detailed view

The other bell tower

The view from the top was worth the climb.

These show the Rhine River as it goes through Basel.  We did not spend too much time up there because it was about 50 degrees with about 20 mph winds and a light rain.

  

The interior of the church was just as impressive:

The pulpit

Down the length of the church

The main windows

A couple of 'permanent' residents

   

Basel (and much of Europe) is much better at efficient public transportation and they use a mixture of trains, trams, and buses.

This is outside the main train station in Basel.  Notice the tram on the right side.  The wires above the road are for the buses.  They run using electric motors.

A Tram

Most of their bus and tram stations have electronic monitors which show the next 4 bus/tram arrivals and the number of minutes until they arrive.

They have bike 'parking lots' next to the different tram/bus stops.

We also went to a Steve McQueen art exhibit.  Not the Steve McQueen you may be thinking of.  He is a video artist and the exhibit was a collection of photos and short (1-30 minute) videos.

Today was a visit to another museum (Basel is a pharmaceutical and art center), starting this blog, and (in about an hour) my sister is putting together a cheese fondue with about 3 or 4 cheeses I've never heard of.  The Swiss make 100s of different cheeses - none of which is called 'Swiss' cheese!

My niece, Lucinda, and their dog Sammy.  Dogs can go on buses etc (if they are in a basket), in restaurants (to some extent) and in stores.  Sammy came with us to the museum today.