Arrival at Basel

 Our first day in Basel, cloudy, drizzling, and a high of 55 degrees. But you can’t just sit in your hotel room.  Off we went on a bus to downtown.  We missed a bus connection but made up for it by walking the remaining distance.  Many shoppers out, interesting store windows, wonderful architecture, 'fussganger' areas (pedestrian only), thus, our walk was pleasant.  We were here briefly three years ago and remember a sumptuous meal we shared at an Italian restaurant but, despite searching, were unable to discover it again.

Basel Airport is at the intersection of Switzerland, France, and Germany (just across the Rhine River).   At the airport, if you go out one door, you are in France while another door leads you to Switzerland. 

Instead, we toured the Basel Zoo, small but an easy walk from the city center.  The weather seemed to not affect attendance; plenty of parents with children.  The sea lions don’t mind this weather, but the large African animals are now indoors.  While at the zoo, we received an email stating that our scheduled flight London to Washington, DC, was canceled.  From the zoo we called British Airlines and rescheduled.  Cell phones are amazing. 

Every town or village has a cathedral, many are magnificent.  It demonstrates the power of the church in previous centuries.

W never tire of looking at the interesting architecture from that medieval era, built using no modern construction equipment.

A day later and now the sun is out, and it is warmer.  We picked up our rental car and headed for Freiburg, Germany, an hour away.  A section of the autobahn had no speed limit, and Dawn ran the Volvo up to almost 100 mph.  Freiburg is a popular university town, it was Saturday, and we had difficulty finding parking.  When you are in a city whose streets were laid out 500 years before the invention of the automobile, that difficulty is not surprising.  Finally, frustrated, I googled ‘public parking’, found the names of two companies that had parking structures, downloaded their app, and was able to get guidance to a nearby underground parking lot. 

A photo to demonstrate the crowds present on this Saturday afternoon.

Freiburg has a magnificent cathedral.  Concession tents and food trucks were arranged around it along with a stage and entertainment.  Crowds everywhere.  After a nice meal and exploration of the Altstadt, it was time to head back to Basel.  Tomorrow and for the following 11 days we will be in France.