Lost in Paradise...er...Basel

Basel - Hotel Euler

Wednesday -- Hop On-Hop Off Day

Today began as a wonderful day. Slightly chilly, but my new jacket was just the right temperature.

After a quick breakfast i took off to find the shop I wanted to see. According to the desk clerk, it was very simple to get there. ‘There’ being the old City Center, I took off on Tram #8.

The public transportation in Basel is awesome. The Hotel Euler (pronounced ‘oiler’) is a stone’s throw from the train station, and right across the street from the hub of the tram system. At all hours there are trams, running multiple cars, leaving from the 6 track hub. And all are free! Didn’t experience them at rush hour, but most of the time I saw them or rode them, they were typically half full.

As I got on #8 with my obvious tourist garb...alpine walking sticks, Tilly hat, ‘confused American’ look, etc...a middle aged lady emphatically, in Dutch, wanted me to take her seat. Truly and act of charity and respect. As best I could I thanked her, and made my way forward where I could read the sign that showed our future stops. When mine came up, I got off and started to walk.

Basel and San Antonio have a lot in common. The streets are laid out from ancient cart paths, are narrow, and are a rabbit warren. After walking about 20 minutes it became obvious I had taken a wrong turn (or gotten off at the wrong stop) and was nowhere near my destination. Mickey’s advice before I left was to speak to a 20-something if I needed help since most of them spoke at least a little English. Three 20-somethings were unloading things for a restaurant so I stopped and asked if they spoke English. “A little.” “Can you help me find this place?” showing them the map. By combining all three of the limited English skills and my non-existant German, it became obvious we weren’t making much progress. I recalled the store advertized it was ‘next to the Apple store,’ so I offered that tidbit. Success! After much more discussion in German I was given a set of instructions...far more that the three my brain can sequence, but I thanked them and set out again.

After about another twenty minutes, and beyond my three instruction limit, help arrived in the form of the many Tourist Information Center that Basel provides. A quick dash in, yellow lines on a map, and I was off again, only twice the distance from my shop than I should have been. The young lady In the Center marked the map (I’m looking at my desk right now...I have at least five of them all marked as to how to get to my store) and offered land marks...which didn’t mean much but was at least something.

Why didn’t it mean much? Well, Basel is a strange city. Ancient buildings stand cheek-to-cheek with new ultra-modern structures. If you identify one of the ancient buildings by its occupants you obviously haven’t really told me much. None of them have signs that I could see would let you know they were a public structure or government office. To top it off, as I would later learn in the city tour, most of them had been re-purposed multiple times. But...I found my store after much uphill, downhill, hiking.

Finding my way home was a piece of cake. I was mid-way between two tram stops. I could walk back uphill to the original stop i was supposed to use, or I could walk downhill to the City Center market place. Guess which I choose.

Another impression of the city...the politzi (police) are-if you will pardon the pun-deadly serious about their jobs. Bristling with police equipment from nightsticks to Glocks with the ubiquitous ear bud, they look directly at you. If you acknowledge them you get no response but a cold stare. At the City Market a policelady was watching three trucks create a traffic jam on one of the narrow streets. Notice I said ‘watching,’ not making any move to help them. I need to ask which direction I should take the tram to get back to the train station, so I addressed her several times from the side with no response. I finally walked in her field of vision and asked for her help. In excellent English she gave me the barest response necessary to set me off in the right direction again.

After walking close to two miles, boy did that tram look good!

After an excellent lunch at the Hotel restaurant I took the City Tour on the Hop-On, Hop-Off city bus. It was a two hour ride with excellent recorded information on an iPhone app that regularly updated our location by GPS to point out the salient city landmark. Although a tourist bus, my seat didn’t really lend itself to picture taking, and we were so close to most of the structures you got only a picture of a window or door so I don’t have many pictures to show for the afternoon, but it was a fascinating afternoon.

Back at the Hotel I took a short nap and went down for supper. Needless to say, I was exhausted and my legs felt like rubber from my excursion so I ‘rewarded’ myself...again. After being on a very strict diet for 90 days I really kicked over the traces upon my arrival in Europe. Grains were strictly out of my diet, so I only allowed myself on super-delicious Swiss roll lathered in super-delicious herb infused garlic butter. (Well, butter is allowed on my diet after all, and I didn’t want to eat it without putting it on something!) Lunch had been grass fed beef (also allowed) with a roux of mushrooms. (flour and dairy - both no-nos.) and grated, fried potatoes. (Do I really have to explain that one? I had also allowed myself more alcohol than I’ve consumed in the last two years...vodka and tonics. (both no-no’s. No sugar allowed-second ingredient in tonic water.)

I was good for supper. Salad with tiger shrimp. But ‘what’s a feller to do.’ The dessert for the evening was Creme Brulee. For 53 years Andrea had pampered me with occasional treats of creme brulee. She was the queen and reigning champion chef in that department. All other brulees are measured against hers. So, in her honor I had a creme brulee for dessert. It was good, but she’s still the champion.

And that evening I paid the price for all of my extravagance. I won’t bother you will the details but suffice it to say that’s why you’re getting Wednesday’s blog on Thursday morning.

I solemnly declare Thursday as a day of fasting!!

Today, Thursday, I plan a harbor cruise going up the Rhine rather than down as I will starting Friday,

As always, if you want to see the other pictures from today (Wednesday,) click here.

And if you’d like to share in my spiritual reflections for the day, click here.

Blessings and peace!