It is about a two hour flight to Basel and it passes relatively fast as we watch outside for the Alps and under recognizable landmarks. As usual for Wizzair we are left a bit outside the gate and we have to walk inside. After passing the border controls and picking our bags it is time to be careful and choose the right exit, we don’t want to exit into France by mistake. Then it is time to take the free, because we stay at a hotel in Basel, bus to the central train station.
Our hotel is right next to the train station, we picked one in walking distance as we didn’t want to carry our heavy luggage too far. The view is quite good and we even have a small balcony to enjoy the cold Basel air.
It is quite a nice room, which is good given how expensive it is. We enjoy the nice amenities and then it is time to go to sleep so we are fresh next morning.
We wake up relatively early and enjoy the sunrise and the views and then it is time to check out. We leave our luggage at the reception and then we start on our exploration of the area, we have about four hours until our car rental starts at the airport.
We start from the train station plaza that we can now enjoy also in the sunlight. It is quite a transportation hub so even though cars are rare it is difficult to cross the street given the frequency of the trams and buses.
We start on the central street which passes lots of private banks and people dresses in suits with ties, which is weird to us in this day and age. We really like the statues though especially the misting dragon which emits a mist of water every few seconds, quite cool!
We did a bit of research previously so we have an idea what we want to see and we planned a loop that touches most of the attractions on the way. The first one is the Red House, an impressive building, part of the Historical Museum Basel which is next to the open church Elisabethen. It is an open church as it is open to everyone, including LGBTQ people that are shunned by other churches.
The major attraction on this part of our walk is the Tinguely fountain. Tinguely, a famous Swiss sculptor, spent some years here and created this mechanical fountain which is quite interesting to see in action. We spend some time watching it before the first tour bus comes, there are lots of tour buses in Basel and Switzerland in general.
From the fountain it is a short hop to Barfüsser square anchored by a church which has been repurposed to hold part of the Historical Museum collection.
The square itself is quite beautiful with the layered houses on the hill and we try to find the best vantage point before continuing towards the Minster.
Right before the Minster hill we cross a pedestrian area. Or what might be a pedestrian area at some hours now it seems quite busy with vans and utility trucks so we have to be quite careful as there is no sidewalk (given that it is a pedestrian area obviously). We walk a bit along it but then it is time to climb to the Minster a major stop on our tour.
