Basel and Baden

I didn't sleep very well last night because I was worried about getting my Swiss Pass from FedEx but it worked out fine! My pass got here about ten and I hopped on the 10:52 train to Basel for my first solo travel!!! L didn't think Basel needed a full day so I figured it was an alright place to go with a shorter day. 

When I got to Basel, it was about lunch time, so I headed done to the river looking for food. It rained pretty good between my walk down to the river then back up to Rathausplatz to actually find food. I got a bratwurst and half a pretzel and it was delicious!!!! From ther, I went through the Rathaus, which is the city hall. It was beautiful! 

From there, I headed back down to the river to visit the Baselr Munster. It was really cool from the outside and beautiful on the inside. The Swiss seem to be a lot less picky about pictures in their churches than the French or Italians, which is nice. I didn't go up in the tower because it was so nasty out but I did check out the back patio/park. From there you can see Germany across the river and France down steam to the left. 

After that, I tried to go to a couple of the museums but the first one was just poorly labelled and at the second, I realized that most museums in Switzerland are closed on Mondays. I ended up walking around old town for a while. It's very terraced almost with all the parallel streets above each other and not a whole lot of cross streets because they have to be where it's not too steep. 

I ended up by the Tinguely Brunnen Fountain which is a really cool mechanical fountain. Pretty much all of the metal parts in the picture were moving! 

At that point, I took some time to look at the map and realized without the museums I only needed to visit the city gate to have hit all the main attractions. So, I walked back across town to the gate.

On the way back to the train station I stopped by the Offene Kirche Elisabrthen but it too was closed on Mondays. 

Overall, I had a really good day. I may go back to Basel some time to get in the museums, but we'll see! I did really good travelling alone, too. Which I'm not surprised about, but I was nervous in the morning. 

After I got back to Baden, I started planning for tomorrow until L came home. It was such a nice afternoon that we decided to walk up to the Ruined Stein on the hill behind Old Town Baden. I snapped a picture of the clock tower in old town on the way. The castle was built sometime before 1000 and changed hands several times before it was besieged in 1415. They were eventually rebuilt in 1658 but semi-demolished in 1712. Pretty sweet, also pretty high without much in the way of a guard rail! The views were amazing though! Definitely worth the climb! Our apartment is behind the four rounded brick buildings. 

From there, we came home and grabbed dinner and went to eat by the river. Overall, an excellent day! I hope we have a lot more like it!