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.

Basel, Switzerland

If you have been reading my blog you know that we took a river cruise on the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel.  Scroll back to see the previous posts about the trip.

April 2, Easter Monday was disembarkation day.  We learned very quickly that Switzerland is expensive from the short taxi we took from the ship to our hotel.  If we'd known where it was we may have walked it.

Being Easter Monday most everything was closed as we quickly learned by walking the streets of the downtown.  Most of these town photos are devoid of pedestrians.

We then figured out the tram system which we had a free pass on thankfully and headed over to the train station and Tourist Information.  We wanted to see the Alps so we gathered information from the very helpful agent at the TI and walked over to Burger King to make our decision.  Food is expensive too!

We decided that a trip to Lucerne, one hour by train and then to the top of Mt. Pilatus by cable cars and gondolas would give us the view of the Alps we wanted.  So Tuesday was planned. Advanced preview photo below of the Alps.

Wednesday our last full day there would be devoted to visiting several of the many museums in Basel.  Below is the one we spent all morning in.  Front was under renovation.

That left Thursday morning's trip to the airport.  When we spoke to the hotel manager about getting a taxi.  He said take the tram to the RR Station then the bus from there to the airport.  Our free transit passes would mean the cost would be nil!

So here are the last posts I'll have about our trip.

Lucerne

Mt. Pilatus

Basel Museums

Other interesting things about Basel