Let's Do It Again - Basel Switzerland - The Second Time Around

 

Basel on the Rhine River

When I first started traveling years ago I never wanted to really visit a city or location more than once.  I told friends and other travelers that there were so many places I wanted to see I did not have time to return to someplace I had already seen once.   Of course that was pure travel naivety on my part.  Then after a few years I fell in love with some locations and truly wanted to see them again.  But there are locations that I really had no big desire to return to a second time.  Basel was one of these places.  I love Switzerland.  It is my favorite country I have visited.  And Basel was my least favorite city I had visited there.  I've been to to Switzerland four times times now.  I have been to Zurich on three of those visits.  And I would return to Zurich again any time.  Each trip to Zurich has a required a visit to the mountain over looking the city for a cliff side glass glass of wine or cocktail at the Auto Klum on top of Uetilberg. .

Aperol Spritz at Uto Klum 2023

If I return to Zurich again I would go to Uetilberg and visit the Uto Klum again with no question.  But Basel was another story.  I first went there in 2003.  It was a lifetime ago now.  My life has changed so much since those days.  And there was nothing of interest that was calling me back to Basel. Mark and I went to Zurich in April 2023.  This was our third visit to Switzerland and our second to Zurich.  We had eight days to spend in Zurich and a five day Swiss Travel Pass for day trips.   Mark had suggested Basel as a place he was interested in seeing.  He liked the idea that it was on the German and French border and wanted to go there.   I told him I had been to Basel and was not really impressed.  It was probably my least favorite location I had visited in Switzerland.  There was nothing awful about it.  I just did not find it as interesting as many other cities I had seen in Switzerland.  But it was not a long train ride to get there. And we did have five travel days to explore so we ended up in Basel on one of those days. 

When I visit a city or a town for the first time I am always busy snapping photos, checking out restaurants, visiting churches and museums, the typical tourist stuff.  But I don't always notice the small unique things around me.  I am two busy trying to take in the over all experience of the location.  When I do return a second time it's usually a different experience.  My photos end up being detailed small objects.  The massive churches I have already seen and photographed.  The river banks are already in my collection of photos.  So I find myself focusing on the small details that I never notice on an initial visit.  But I ust was not sure about Basel.  I did not think I would much more  of interest on my second visit than I had on my first. 

I still took photos of the churches on this second visit of course. When I was in Basel in 2003 the Grossmunster was covered with scaffolding, as many churches are when I travel.  My photo was disappointing of course from all of the construction.

Basel Grossmunster - 2003

 However when I returned in April 2023, twenty years later I was able to get a photo free of scaffoling.

Basel Grossmunster  on the Rhine River 2023 sans scaffolding

But I did find another church this time covered in scaffolding to include on my annual church renovation travel photos.  I just expect this when I travel.

Elizabethenkirche - Basel under scaffolding 2023

As I walked through Basel on this visit I had a very different experience than I did in 2003.  I noticed many small details that I simply passed by on my initial visit.  These are not big things or necessarily important things.  But they are things I found interesting making Basel a much more fun experience this time.

I noticed people sitting along the banks of the Rhine River.  I don't know that I would have paid any attention to them on my initial visit.  I was too busy looking for the "big picture" experience of Basel. But they had the right idea.  Perhaps it was their second visit also.

I walked across this bridge several times in 2003.  I even had a photo taken of me on the bridge.  But I did not notice a lot of details.  On this visit I saw more than a bridge.  I noticed a lady on the sidewalk asking for coins bringing the human element into focus of Basel. 

Lady asking for coins on the bridge

This one makes me laugh.  I saw a head of a king on the side of a building sticking his tongue out at people was they walk by.   It's a small detail but it made me laugh.

Lällekönig -  King sticking out tongue  - 1914

I have also been learning a lot of German from my time in Basel.  While labeling and editing my photos of small details I have seen many words that I did not know.  Lälle könig interprets as Little King in my Google search.   I also learned that it is a well known symbolic figure in Basel and has probably existed since the 17th century. The house where he is hanging today was built in 1914.  

I saw this sculpture of St. George Slaying the Dragon over a fountain.  Labeling the photo I realized I had never read the story about St. George and the Dragon.  I had seen images before and even a know album cut called The George and Dragon from an old Herman's Hermits album   (now that is telling my age!)  So I took some time when I got home and researched the legend of St. George.  Thanks Basel for that interesting lesson.  

We walked past a restaurant called Papa Joe's.   It's a rather odd restaurant in Basel.  It's menu consists of American and Mexican food choices and I read that it's difficult to get a reservation here.  However what caught my attention was this unusual mural over the restaurant.  There is an angel on the left of the mural. And then three naked ladies or perhaps angels flying toward what looks like a naked Jesus with a cape.   I am not sure exactly what anything represents here.  But I was fascinated by the image and had to get a photo of it.  

Amazon leading a horse

Here is another sculpture that caught my attention.  This is titled Amazon Leading A Horse. It was created by Carl Burckhardt.  I found out it was his last work before his death in 1923 and it was donated to the city in 1926.   It is one of his best known works and it is  on the Mittlere Brücke. It is also his last work. The casting was done after his death.  I am sure I will return to this statue again and do more research.   I know it is an interpretation of an ancient statue.  The girl is looking across the river in this location.  And I am sure it has some historical significance for it's placing.

I saw this bar and restaurant called the Braunen Mutz  (The Brown Hat).   It has bear images on it's wall and a metal bear symbol hanging over its door.  I know bears are important images in Switzerland so this caught my attention.  But I was surprised when I translated the name to find it call The Brown Hat.  But all of this continued to make this visit Basel fun for me.

This is probably my biggest surprise of my visit.  There is a Rodan sculpture in Basel that I just happened to walk past after leaving the train station into the city.   Les bourgeois de Calais (The Burghers of Calais) by Rodin, 1884 - 1886 ~ outside  Kunstmuseum in Basel.   I am a huge fan of Rodan's works so I was thrilled to have seen this.  However when I walked past it I did not realize it was a Rodan or that it had any importance.  I only knew that I really it and was fascinated by it.  Not until later in my research did I realize who created it.  

As we were leaving Basel I told Mark that I found the city much more fascinating on this visit and that I was glad I had returned.   He told me he was surprised as he was not very impressed with Basel at all, much like me on my first visit.   He may have to return again and see if he finds it more interesting the second time around.  I'll take the train to Geneva that day.  Although I had a wonderful experience revisitng Basel, it once again was still my least favorite city I have visited in Switzerland.  But it was certainly worth a second chance.  

From bronze statues of Poseidon ...

To dragons hovering over bridges...

To me taking selfies with strange murals ...

I thoroughly enjoyed my second visit to Basel.    I was a member of Virtual Tourist, a travel web site that no longer exits, when I first visited Basel in 2003.  I wrote on that site that Basel had the opportunity to become a travel destination in the future.  The possibility was there for the future if the city had the resources to work on it.  Twenty years later in 2023 I still say that Basel has the potential but still needs some attention to detail.  

I am glad I returned.  I am glad I got to notice the small and unusual details that I missed on my first visit.   So I life a glass to Basel and a cheer because I enjoyed it much more the second time around.

Cheers! To Basel.  

Fulfilling Dreams - Swiss Travel Fantasies

On the cliff walk - Top of Europe

 

Diane Arbus said the word fantasies means " to indulge in reverie. to create or develop imaginative and often fantastic views or ideas. Doing things I'd fantasized about in my sheltered childhood" I was raised in a very sheltered childhood. I escaped through movies to worlds I thought I would never see and imagined adventures I would never be able to do. I have been very fortunate in my adult life to live out many of those childhood fantasies. Counting my blessings I often think of my family. I often wonder what dreams and fantasies my parents and grandmother had. I think about what they wanted to see and do but but were never able to fulfill those dreams. My mother never traveled abroad. She was a child of the depression and a young adult of the World War II years. Travel was just not an option for her. My father was raised in the country. He had a seventh grade education. I doubt he ever thought about Europe or world travel growing up. But he did get to travel to Europe. But it was no fantasy. He was drafted during World War II and almost died from war wounds in Italy near Rome. My grandmother was born poor and struggled most of her life. She married a young soldier she met during the World War I years. They met when he was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland near her home town. They married and they moved back to his home in Indiana. To my grandmother that was a huge move. She gave birth to her first child in Indiana. The child was still born and she went into a great depression and just wanted to return to her home in Maryland. So they returned to Maryland and that was the extent of her travel for her entire life.

My grandmother at Ocean City,Maryland

I love this photo. This was my grandmother in her late sixties. She lived just a two hour drive from the Atlantic Ocean yet had never been to see it. I remember this day how she stared out at the ocean for the longest time fascinated with the waves and the sand. She is sitting here with my sister Shelley and my father. She was his mother in law and he treated her with love and respect. They are in Ocean City, Maryland. To this day Ocean City is still a favorite destination for my sister.



One of my mothers fantasies was to visit New York City. She wanted to see a taping of The Tonight Show and maybe even a Broadway play. She never got to New York. The thought of taking a car or train to New York was just beyond her comprehension. We did have vacations growing up. We visited Ocean City. We took mountain trips to Skyline Drive and The Blue Ridge Parkway. My father loved his boat and we spent many vacations on his boat up and down the Chesapeake Bay.

I was never satisfied with any of that. I had big fantasies and places I wanted to see. I watched the world through the imagination of the James Bond movies. I wanted to see Switzerland where James Bond skied down the Schilthorn from Blofeld's sanctuary Piz Gloria on top of the mountain. I wanted to see Thailand where James Bond dueled with Scarmanga. And I wanted to see the Eiger in Switzerland, the mountain Clint Eastwood climbed the mountain in The Eiger Sanction. These were big fantasies. I was never satisfied with the safety of staying home. I wanted to get out and see the world. And I have been blessed as an adult to do this.

Larry at Piz Gloria on top the Schilthorn

Twenty years ago I did get to visit Switzerland.  It was a huge fantasty come true.  I got to take the cable car 10,000 feet into the Alps and visit the top of Schilthorn where Piz Glora, Blofeld's home was located.  The building is actually a rotating restaurant where I had lunch and a James Bond martini shaken not stirred.  

At Piz Gloria on top of the Schilthorn

In 2014 I had the opportunity to visit another fantasy location.  Jams Bond Island in Thailand.  This was the home to Bond villain Scaramanga.  I was very excited about this vacation.  However I slipped on a wet curb in Chiang Mai, Thailand and broke my ankle.  I did not realize it was broken.  We had three more days left of our vacation and I thought it was just a sprain.  We flew from Chiant Mai to Phuket. And from there we took a boat out to James Bond Island.  So I waded in from the boat to the shores of the island limping a little and hobbling a lot.  I was the old man holding up the rest of the tourists on this excursion.  But I was determined.   

James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay - Thailand

I think that if my parents and grandmother were still alive they would be shocked at the places I have visited.  I know my husband Mark's parents would get upset with us traveling a lot.  His father told us we were tempting fate.  You can only fly so many times before something happens.  And I am sure my parents would have had similar fears.  My mother never flew an air plane.  My father drove to New York City with a tractor and trailer for his job and said he would never drive in that city again.  And to my knowledge that was his only time to ever see New York.  But one of my biggest fantasies was yet to come.

Mark and I returned to Switzerland for our third visit, my fourth, in April 2023.  We had a wonderful vacation, one of my favorite adventures of many we have shared.  And finally the Eiger mountain awaited me.  The mountain that Clint Eastwood challenged in The Eiger Sanction.  Another movie fantasy for me.  

We traveled by train from Zurich to Grindelwald.  The Swiss trains are wonderful to use.  They are extremely punctual.  They are comfortable even in second class.  And they allow you to see almost any location you want to see in Switzerland.  The town of Grindelwald was beautiful.

Grindelwald Switzerland

We took a twenty five minute cable car ride up to First Mountain which faces the Eiger.

And then we did the cliff walk.  A metal bridge attached to the side of the mountain 6,500 feet in elevation.  This is not my photo.  It's from a web site about the cliff walk.  But it shows the walk better than my photos.

This was a thrill.   Unlike Clink Eastwood (who did his own stunts) in The Eiger Sanction were were not hanging on the side of the Eiger.  But we were facing it and looking directly at it.  

Fulfilling Fantasies 

And how did we end out visit?

With a well sanctioned Eiger glass of wine.  I count my blessings.  I am very fortunate.  At age seventy still living out my fantasies.  I think my parents and my grandmother would be shocked but yet thrilled if they were here.  When I travel I often thing how much I would love to share the experiences with them.  And I often wish I could tell them all about it when I return home.