Or walk into an antique store, which
although there is someone in the store, is apparently closed “but since you are
already in”…
Our second day in Basel started out slow:
A very, very slow start… breakfast at 11
anyone?
As it was so late we took our bus into the center of town and had a small breakfast in the Schiesser coffee shop overlooking the market square in front of City Hall. It dates back to 1870.
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| inside the "Rathaus", City Hall |
As is usual, our adventures always see us eating in not only interesting places, but also usually very good food: after a short bit of shopping we settled on the Küchlin where we had the vegetarian "vegetable pocket", which was very, very good with its accompanying rocket pesto. The restaurant itself is built in the building that held a theater back in the day and they kept the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) objects - as well as part of the wall from the old theater.
After lunch we returned to the Barfüssplatz (Barefoot square - not that one was tempted this particular day: winter and grey) and each wandered a bit on our own, D-L going to the Toy Museum where there was a special exhibit on 3'000 years of shoes and I to explore first the open-air Tinguely exhibit, then a church and the back streets down to the market square.
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| A Tinguely sculpture |
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| Another TInguely sculpture |
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| Statue near our hotel - back |
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| Same statue - front |
By the time we met again we were both ready to be off our feet and imbibe in tea and coffee. Although we only went to the coffee shop at one of the local department stores, the walls had room-size posters, which gave us the impression of being in some large castle library: easy to live with. In addition to our drinks we each had a raspberry pastry so "supper" was yogurt in the room, but at least we didn't need to use the pedestrian emergency entrance to the hospital across the street from our hotel!
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| Deco in the department store cafeteria |
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| Emergency entrance for pedestrians |
On the way back to the hotel we stopped in the Fair Trade shop for American Indian items... where I acquired a lovely pair of earrings. Perhaps the next time that I am in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, etc. I will wander into a Swiss souvenir store???
Then next door I saw someone in the Antique store so opened the iron gate and boldly entered, not realizing that it wasn't open, just the owner was in there working... She graciously allowed me to stay "as I was already in" so D-L ended up with a Penguin for her collection.
The next day after a great breakfast with eggs cooked to order and all the trimmings, we sauntered out of our hotel, to the tram and on to the train station, saying goodbye to Basel - a short stop in Bern and we were "home again". Wonderful adventures.
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| Detail on the Basel train station |
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