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Published: December 11th 2007
The fact that Strasbourg is on the edge of France makes it so much easier to pop out of the country for the day. Germany is only a 10 minute drive away, and Switzerland is only just over an hour away by train. So the other day, just for something different, Laura, Lizette, Ben and I decided to take that train over to Switzerland and check out Basel, the little city near the Swiss/French border.
And it really is on the border. When you arrive at the Basel train station, you’re still officially in France, and then you have to walk through the border gates inside the train station to get to Switzerland. It doesn’t feel that different from one side of the gates to the other, but my French mobile phone will only work in France and I lost signal as soon as I crossed through! I’m not quite sure how they do that.
Although it’s only an hour away, the city has a really different feel to Strasbourg or any of the nearby Alsacian towns. The buildings are so different, almost gothic - kind of like mini castles around the place. I think that as an Australian
Puppenhausmuseum
This is just a window display out the front, but it was quite similar inside - the four year old inside of me was so excited!travelling to a completely different country in one hour will always be a concept I have trouble with. In one hour not only were we in a different country as far as borders are concerned, but it looked different, they used a different currency and also spoke a different language. In Basel they speak Swiss German above anything else, and although some people did speak French it was easier to find someone who spoke English. And it’s no secret that Switzerland is an expensive country. The Swiss franc is almost exactly the same as an Australian dollar in exchange rates, but when it comes to spending it the Swiss franc doesn’t go very far!
Yet, although relatively expensive, it's a beautiful town with a lot to see. We went to two museums, the first museum being the Puppenhausmuseum - basically a museum full of toys! It was so cute, there were teddy bears and dolls from all over the world and from all through the ages. Although the best part was the dollhouse exhibition - an entire level of miniature people in their houses and workplaces with miniature food, clothing, newspapers - every aspect of life was represented in
finite detail. It’s impossible to describe how amazing they were because if someone told me there was a level of dollhouses in this museum I would have just yawned, but in reality it was stunning.
Then to continue on with amazing exhibitions, we went to see the Andreus Gursky exhibition at the Kunstmuseum. I’d actually never heard of him before, but I like photography so I was happy to go along and I did so without much expectation but it completely blew my mind! He takes the most incredible photos, mostly of people and mostly from a distance, joining lots of frames together to make one big scene. The photos were huge, sometimes just one photo would take up a whole wall, and the detail was so phenomenal it would be lost on a smaller scale so I’m happy I got to see the photos in real life. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something that captured my attention the way his photos did, they were truly remarkable.
As well as the museums we had a great day just wandering around the city, stopping here and there for coffee and a bite to eat, wandering through the Christmas
Killer Trams
They run a lot faster than in Strasbourg, I thought I got pretty scared crossing the street! markets and sipping on Glühwein - warm, spiced wine that seems to be very popular at Christmas time. The uni semester is coming to an end and I've got a lot more work to do than I'd care to admit, so it was a really nice break to get out and do some exploring for a day and make the most of being in the middle of Europe while I still can!
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Maa
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Another item at last!
How lovely that you have had time for another visit and another item for us to read. I though I could spy white stuff on the market stands - wondering if it was snow or ice. You haven't mentioned anything about seeing snow again yet. I hope you manage to have white Christmas this year!!