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.

Lucerne, Switzerland - A Walking Tour

It was a beautiful afternoon in Lucerne.  Warm temperatures compared to what we had experienced up in the snow covered Mt. Pilatus.  We enjoyed walking the town to experience it.

 Chapel Bridge first constructed in first half of 14th century as part of fortifications.

Water Tower built around 1300.

Needle Dam to regulate water level of Lake Lucerne.

Walking across another wooden walkway over the water on Spreuer Bridge.  Halfway across was this shrine. 

Paintings in the timbers above.

Original wall around the town.

 

Snow covered peaks loom over the city.

Paintings in rafters of the first wooden bridge.

We stopped in Starbucks before heading to the train station.  It was a good day.

Mt. Pilatus

In order to see the Alps while we were in Switzerland we needed to get up high.  We accomplished that with our trip to Lucerne from Basel and from there to the top of Mt. Pilatus.

First we caught the tram a half block from the hotel.

That took us to the train station.

Once in Lucerne we got a bus and told the driver where we wanted to go so he told us the stop.

We followed the signs pointing the way up a hill passing this lovely church.

See the red and white signs up ahead?  That's the spot to get the cable car to that mountain in the distance.

Here's Dan in the cable car as we leave.  Each cable car seats 4.  We had it to ourselves.

We get above the town very fast.

There are two stops along the way and we made the mistake of getting out before we realized it was too soon.  So we clamored into the next car.

This mountain isn't just a destination at the top.  In the summer there are all sorts of venues including a rope park, tree tenting, and hiking trails.  On the other side is a cog railroad accessed by a ferry from downtown Lucerne.  It was too early in the season for that to be running.

We changed to a gondola at the second stop.  It was much bigger.

Here's Dan at the top.  

If it were summer time you could take a short hike to the actual top.

It was still winter.

View of the Alps.

Here's a gondola heading up as we await our turn to go down.

Still time to explore Lucerne before catching the train back to Basel.