An afternoon in Basel

We picked up a rental car at the end of our time in Zurich and headed towards Bern. We’d heard good things about Basel, so we decided a small detour on the way was a good idea. And decided that an even smaller detour on that way to go to the Habsburg Castle was also a good idea. Maybe both of these also explain why we thought a rental car was a good idea instead of utilizing the lovely Swiss train system.

Basel was very charming. We parked the car outside the old town on one side of the river and wandered around to see the Rathaus (city hall), a few squares and streets, and the cathedral. The cathedral had a view over the river to the other half of old town, where we wanted to have lunch. To our dismay, the nearest bridge was a ways down, and we were both hot and hungry. Luckily, we spotted one of Basel’s ingenious passenger ferries right below us. Scott had read about these before, so he knew it was one of about four spots along the river where you could be ferried across in a boat powered solely by the current. It was awesome.

We got to lunch soon after, at a great courtyard restaurant where I had a spectacular chicken and chanterelle dish. After that we walked further up the river, saw some swim clubs and luxurious overnight river cruise boats, and passed over the border into France. There’s a nice path that keeps going a little farther up and across the river into Germany as well before coming back to Switzerland, but unfortunately it’s only open on weekends. So we spent a couple moments in France and then headed back to our car.