Basel – Is that You?

Does anyone else remember Fawlty Towers?

With the mountains behind us, we made our way to Basel, Switzerland for a visit to the Roman ruins of Augusta Raurica. I was afraid Basel was going to be a bit industrial or uninteresting but instead it was quite a delightful city. If you stay in paid accommodation you get a free transit pass. People were friendly and helpful.

We stayed in a private room at the YMCA Hostel, a modern building with a guest kitchen, a big dining and lounge area, and a laundry. Doors opened and closed automatically. Lights turned themselves on and off via motion sensors. They gave us little slippers and terry robes, and left a mini Toblerone on our pillows. I liked it.

Using our free transit passes we took the tram and then bus to Augst, the former Roman town of Augusta Raurica, 12 kilometres outside of Basel. The Roman remains include an amphitheatre, theatre, baths, sanctuary, forum, town gate, and walls from a later fort.

The museum had some interesting things, including some silverware and votive statues.

And there was a reconstructed Roman house complete with furniture.

When we stopped for lunch my culinary adventure continued.

We also got our first glimpse of the Rhine River.

English – the new Lingua Franca

That night we bought some meatballs, vegetables and potatoes from a deli and ate them at the hostel. At the table next to us was a group of five people all speaking English to each other despite it not being anyone’s first language. There were a Polish man, a couple of Hungarian men, a Hungarian woman and a Portuguese man. They were all in their 30s or 40s. It was really funny listening to them speak using strange phrases in English. Copious amounts of vodka and other alcohol was being drunk. They had made some kind of stuffed eggplant (as we would call it), and so they had a very involved conversation about what the word was for eggplant/aubergine in the different languages. The Polish guy quite liked swearing at the other guys in English. Perhaps he had started on the vodka earlier than the others. Interesting dinner theatre.

Street Entertainment

The morning before we left Basel we walked around shopping and seeing the town. Saw some interesting statues. In the Munsterplatz (the Munster is a big church) we came across the unveiling of a Leonardo flying machine being filmed. We’re not sure what it was for, maybe some kind of television show.

Basel is right on the border with both Germany and France. In fact at the train station you just go through a door and you are in French territory, which we did because Edeana needed to get a non-Swiss customs officer to stamp a receipt for her so she could get a tax refund. So technically we went to France. But right after that we hopped the train for Germany.

Now here it is your moment of mosaic from Augusta Raurica. Their gladiator mosaics were away for restoration so this is all I got today.