Basel and Augusta Raurica

Back to Switzerland for us - although not quite as early as yesterday. We both took the train from Paris, but when it stopped in Basel, I got off and Jose continued on to Zurich for another performance of the opera.

It took me a little while to get my bearings and a lot of looking at maps and furrowing of my brow, but I started off visiting the cathedral, which was OK. Basel isn't as picturesque as some of the other cities I've been to, but by the end of the day I liked it and it seems like there's more to DO than in Zurich.

After the cathedral I went down Freiestrasse, which is kind of like Boston's Downtown Crossing. I got my usual at Starbucks (my third time here) - Iced Soy Caramel Macchiato and a ham and cheese croissant (sooo good here). After I snarfed my croissant and people watched for a bit, I went to the Botanical Garden at the university, which was really great. Lots of photo opportunities there.

From Europe 2009

Next stop was the sculpture hall (I'm always up to see sculpture) - but this was kind of an odd collection in kind of one big room just sort of scattered about. Some were even made of Styrofoam. I'm pretty sure all of them were replicas, but I'm not sure. Hey, it was free with my Swiss Pass.

I continued my cultural streak with a stop off at the Kunstmuseum (art museum), which was MUCH better. Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh... lots of nice paintings and a larger, special Van Gogh exhibit that I didn't go to. I found that I really liked one painter - Arnold Böcklin. So I got some postcards to maybe put up at work.

From Europe 2009

Finally I returned to the visitor's center at the bahnhof and got directions (from the very nice woman that helped me at the start of my Basel visit) to Augusta Raurica. It was similar to my trip to Avenches last time - Roman ruins plopped in the middle of a regular town. Or should I say, a regular town plopped on and around Roman ruins? Thankfully the rain held off until I got back on the train. I would have visited the part of town near the Rhine but my feet were sooo tired. So I just came back to Zurich and the apartment... so I've just been updating my blog and Facebooking.

I still can't believe I am here for 11 more full days! I'm going to be able to do so much unless I spend all my money (which is a real possibility here), but I'm very glad I got the Swiss Eurorail pass before I left.