Beautiful Basel

I realize now that I'd been unconsciously resisting a day-trip to Basel just because I thought of the city as that place that was so hard to hitch-hike through so many years ago. Sometimes my dummy-quotient still surprises me.

So on Tuesday, which was supposed to be the tail-end of the gorgeous, miraculously warm sunny weather we'd been having for a week here in Suisse-Romande, I dutifully jumped on the train, and headed for this city which I'd never really seen.

I say "dutifully" because, with my Swiss rail pass, which is not cheap, I can travel anywhere in the country anytime, so I am duty-bound to use it enough each month to make the pass a bargain, even though that means traveling the equivalent of twice to Jupiter and back. But I'm determined, so off I went to Basel.

An hour after I'd arrived and ambled through Old Town awhile, I experienced a now-familiar dutiful-day-trip feeling:  I love this place!

 

First of all, there's just the fact that you can go to practically any town or city in CH and find its medieval heart still beating, albeit now very likely with Swatch boutiques, armies of Swiss Army Knives on display, and discount outdoor-gear stores. And of course, McDonalds.

Nevertheless, Basel is beautiful.