A slice of Basel love

 

As the jazz concert ended a little earlier than I thought on Friday afternoon I decided to take a stroll a long the Rhine while I waited to meet up with C later on. A sunny and beautiful Friday afternoon, absolutely gorgeous for both a nice stroll as well as for just hanging around with my camera. 

A long the river you got some of the largest and most impressive homes of the city. However, I guess there is a slight back draw with living so close to the river as you always have a lot going on right outside. The Rhine is a place that comes a live and that people make sure to enjoy all summer long.

The small ferry boats are still busy crossing from one shore to another. A tradition that has been going on for hundreds of years and still is such a nice tradition going strong. You can even rent one of these boats and have a little private party or get together on. It will then anchor in the middle of the river and you can bring food and drinks for your party. So I have heard anyway.

This is not my bike but I still ride my bike. It is my favorite means of transportation. Just so easy and convenient. Basel is just the right size of city for biking anywhere and everywhere. Most of the time it does not take more than 10-15 minutes to get to your destination. The weather is so lovely now that there is just not a better way to get around either. I bike in winter as well, unless it is just too cold or too awful.

People are still swimming in the Rhine. Floating is a sport and a pleasure here.

I love the fountains around the city with the city's little dragon figure. The Basilisk, the symbol of Basel. Besides being decorative they offer everyone a fresh drink of water or a place where you can fill up your water bottle.

Love the way the warm August sun is reflected on the surface of the water. 

When I moved here I had no idea if I would like living in a smaller city as Basel is with it's approximately 200,000 inhabitants. But on the other hand Basel has the perfect location in the upper corner of Switzerland with the proximity to both Germany as well as France. For being a smaller city it is very international, it draws a lot of fun stuff and major exhibitions. This is considered to be the culture capital of Switzerland. It does not appear as such a small city when it comes to events and yet it is the perfect size to make it easy to get around.

Basel has many beautiful and well preserved buildings. This is due to several factors. Basel was fortunate and was not struck by devastation during World War II such as many of the neighboring cities of Germany and France. Another factor is that there has been and is a great effort of preserving and protecting old buildings. Many of the buildings in old town have the year they were built printed on the the building as well as a descriptive name painted on the facade, usually above the door.

By looking up there is so much to see as well. Old town is filled with beautiful buildings.

Right now the weather is gorgeous. We got those cool and fresh mornings and then nice summer temperatures during the day. Tomorrow summer is returning full blown with 30 degrees. Great start to September I would say.