Wordless Wednesday - Moving Fountains in Basel

Basel Museum

My last long post on our Rhine Cruise and stop over in Basel.  

Our last day there we devoted to visiting museums though only one really captured our interest: 

The Museum in a Church, one of three of the Basel Historical Museum sites.

The church was built as a convent church in the 14th century.  In 1894 it became a museum!  The church had closed.  The museum is known for having the Basel Cathedral Treasury, The Basel Dance of Death, stunning medieval tapestries and archeological finds from the Celts, Romans and Early Middle Ages.

We spent hours in this place just fascinated.  Here's some of what I captured in photos.

The tapestries were in very dark rooms.  I couldn't use flash so I've tried to lighten the photos.

The detail was incredible.

We both loved the color of this one.

When I was in junior high school I wanted a globe like those.  Never did get it.

That is gold on there.

Someone's bones were in this gold head.  At this point I was limiting photos because my battery was about to give out.

This was a wonderful museum and I have only captured a fraction of what there was to see and learn.

We flew back home on April 5th savoring our visit to the Rhine and Switzerland.

Basel's Gothic Cathedral

The Basel Cathedral or Minster sits on a hill above the Rhine River.  It was a favored spot of the Celts and then the Romans.  Now the area around the cathedral is the Munsterplatz.

Its built of red sandstone between 1019 and 1500.  

This statue is on the front of the Cathedral is a saint slaying a dragon.  See that the spear has penetrated the dragon's head?

Across the Platz is the bishop's residence.  Prince-bishops ruled the city until the Reformation.

The church is now Reformed Protestant, quite a change inside from the Catholic Churches.

On the other side there looks to be a monastery that would have been associated with the Cathedral when it was Catholic.  Tombstones hang on the walls of the covered walkways.

Basel: Three Tidbits

Tidbits, curiosities, or striking sights.  Whatever you want to call them, they get captured in a photo and call out to be shared here on this blog.

#1

A store window that caught my attention.  What a name for a cigar store?

I wondered if they had to get permission from his descendants to use his name.

#2

View from our window at the East/West Riverside Hotel in Basel.

Notice the specks on the building across the way?

Huge ants are crawling up the side of this building.  We did go in the coffee shop on the ground floor for tea.  We sat in the enclosed backyard.  No ants in sight!

#3

Had to have fondue in Switzerland.

The helpful Tourist Information woman who we returned to see after our trip to Lucerne (subject of another post) recommended two traditional Swiss restaurants to us.  We had the fondue at Walliser Kanne and though we looked up on the iPad how to find it we had a difficult time of it until it suddenly appeared in front of us.

We shared a huge Caesar salad, the fondue, and strawberries Romanoff for dessert.  We were stuffed.

If you get to Basel look for this restaurant.  It's been there since 1947 in a building that's much much older than that.

Basel Rathaus

Easter Monday at 10 o'clock in the morning no one was about except other passengers from our ship. We ran into a couple we had met on board.  

As we wandered about that morning the town hall or Rathaus, a bright red, caught our attention.

Normally there is a market in the square but not this holiday.

We went through the arches to the inner courtyard.

Notice the coat of arms above the door?  I had to ask someone what it was.  It's not a hat but a stylized version of a bishop's crozier or staff, foreshortened of course.  That coat of arms appears everywhere in Basel.  You'll see it in many of the photos I have here.

Quite a magnicent building outside.  I wonder what it looked like inside.

One of many interesting things about Basel.  More to come.