Basel, where French, Swiss, and German come together

From Strasbourg a train ride brought us to Colmar, France, another Alsatian wine country town.  Again, very scenic with an extensive old town district.  Dawn & I had both caught “colds” in Strasbourg; however, when Dawn’s symptoms were prolonged, we got Covid tests, and we both tested positive.  Thus, we backed off on a wine village trip and have been preparing our meals at the apartment.  I purchased decongestant meds for Dawn which greatly improved her outlook.  

A winding river courses through Colmar.  These building are hundreds of years old.  An altstadt Colmar scene.  Colmar is similar to Strasbourg except smaller and with a less magnificent cathedral.  Apparently, in the past, the church held enormous power.  Those cathedrals are by far the most elaborate and large buildings in most of these old cities.

This ferry boat crossing the Rhine River is powered entirely by the river current.  The boat is attached to a cable which crosses the river.  By turning the rudder one way the boat is pushed to port; turning the rudder the other way causes the boat to tack to starboard (like a sailboat).

Now we are in Basel.  I had made a hotel reservation in Basel near the bahnhof, thinking that it would be very convenient for our travels.  Turns out there are multiple bahnhofs: a Swiss SBB Hauptbahnhof, a French gare (French for bahnhof), and a German DB bahnhof across the Rhine River.  Our hotel is near to the German bahnhof, not convenient for our train travels.  But we are very much enjoying the hotel; they made a special effort to accommodate my lactose intolerance; and we have learned of tram connections between all the bahnhofs and other attractions.  The trams run about every ten minutes, so there is very little wait.  The hotel room comes with a "city card" which allows free transportation on all local public transportation.  Upon leaving Basel we purchased Swiss Travel Passes which allow free travel throughout the entire country of Switzerland as well as free entrance to many museums and reduced price for other attractions.

Market plaza in Central Basel.

The Rhine River was a short distance down the hill from our hotel and has comfortable and scenic walking paths.  We also took an interesting ferry ride across the river.  The ferry boat is attached to an overhead cable and is powered by the river's considerable current.  Walking along the riverbanks ensures that you will not be facing hills to climb. At sunset, we found an excellent restaurant for one of our best meals; not cheap, but money well spent.

Yummy dinner at an Italian restaurant on a back street near the Rhine.

While at Basel we needed to decide what our next stop would be.  It was now October.  The more mountainous parts of Switzerland were starting to get colder than we had packed clothing for and with a chance of snow.  For this entire trip, we had brought only carry-on luggage because we wanted to avoid the delay and possible loss of suitcases.  We chose St. Gallen, northeastern Switzerland, as our next destination and were able to reserve an apartment for the next six days.  From that location on short day trips, we could visit the Bodensee to the north and scenic mountains to the south using our Swiss Passes.  Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein are nearby.