Basel - First Impressions

Markus very kindly took me on a whirlwind tour of Basel. It's a small city of 200,000 but packed with lovely historical buildings dating back to Roman and Celtic times some 2000 years ago.





























The Rhine river appears to be the life blood of the city, dividing it into 2 parts: Klein-Basel (little) and Gross-Basel (big). The river is so clean that people actually swim in it from the center of town though the current is quite strong. Also, a funky ferry is tethered to a cable straddling the entire width of the river. The ferryman simply points the nose into the speedy current, shifts the rudder and lets the water and tether do the rest. It's quite remarkable to watch. The Rhine starts in the Swiss Alps where the mountain runoff picks up speed, flowing first through Switzerland then up into Germany.

Not surprisingly, I've discovered Basel - actually all of Switzerland - to be quite an expensive place. Just a few groceries cost more than twice the price we pay in Canada. We're spoiled! Then again, Markus told me the average salary here is around 150,000 CHF. Whoaaaa, no wonder the cost of living is so high. It appears to have had this side effect as well: no homeless people! Hard to tell whether it's due to legislation or because it would be so difficult to beg enough change in the course of a day to buy a meal. 


So here's what people do when things get expensive. They hop across to France where prices are much more palatable. Since Switzerland is not part of the EU, you do cross a physical border. However, upon crossing after 5pm and finding the border unmanned, I'd guess both the French and Swiss border guard figured their dinner was more important than national security.


Basel sits on the confluent points of Switzerland, France and Germany. So on our way home from Markus' little tour, he detoured a mere 10 km to Germany for an errand then headed back via France, only another 5 km!


Another little factoid: the German and Swiss police force drives Mercedes cars...as well as cabbies. Apparently, Mercedes here is perceived as a military type organization, not a prestige car as it is known in North America.