We left the Kara at 10am after docking in Basel, Switzerland. We planned two days in Switzerland, the first of them here.
It was only a hop, skip and a jump from our boat to the Hotel Basel.
The hotel is well located in the Old Town and is clean and very pleasant. Here are a couple of photos of our room. I would certainly have no difficulty recommending these lodgings.
How lucky were we that the Fall Festival, which has been tradition for over 400 consecutive years was running. Notwithstanding the drizzle, we decided to stroll over and have a look. We passed interesting buildings . . .
. . . and window displays.
The festival certainly reminded me of the Christmas Markets. As we were entering the market our attention was drawn upward to an acrobat.
And then we were in the festival market place. There were stalls up and down in the Petersplatz all offering any number of things for sale. No Christmas items as they undoubtedly await the start of the their Christmas Market.
From there we decided to take a tram ride just to see the city. As we made our way to the tram we passed this statue.
The tram took us from one end of the line past the train station and up a hill to the other end of the line. We ultimately returned to the train station to purchase train tickets to Luzern for tomorrow. Then we returned to the Hotel Basel where we had a beer before setting off on foot. We were fortunate to see some interesting things. Umbrellas caught my eye immediately.
And there was an interesting mural.
I hadn’t seen an ear tree before but there is one in Basel.
As we walked we found ourselves once again at the Festival at Munster Platz. The festival takes place at a number of sites. It was exciting to see it at night, along with the color, crowd and rides.
From there we walked back to the Marketplatz. I took some photos as we strolled along. Here are a couple.
Notable is the Rathaus (City Hall). It dominates the Marketplatz. Here are a couple of shots of it both in the daylight and at night. Inside and out, it is quite extraordinary.
As we were making our way to dinner, I saw this window.
And then it was off to dinner where we all indulged in German cuisine. JoAnn and I both had veal liver in a Marsala gravy and Jimmy and Barbara enjoyed a schnitzel. Then back to the hotel to prepare for our trip to Lucerne tomorrow. Here is a shot of the Hotel Basel at night.
