Trip to Basel, Switzerland

Today, the girls and I went to Basel, only an hour and a half away from Strasbourg and yet another country.

It just so happened that today was also the day after the first big snowfall in Basel after 50 years (according to one of the friendly locals). So, the tram lines were stopped for a bit, and it was slippery and damp on the feet for our whole day of walking, but still, with the sun shining, the beautiful mountain views, and the friendliness of the locals, it turned out to be a memorable day.

The best part of visiting a city is just getting to walk around and get a feel for it. And, even better, we went on a Sunday, and like in many places in Europe, practically everything was closed in Basel as well. So it was so nice to see everyone out, enjoying their day off with their families. I saw little kids being pulled on their tobaggans by their parents, and a lot of people were wearing snowpants. (Snowpants! I haven't worn them since I was in gr 7 so it was different to see so many of the Swiss wearing them and even adults tobagganing today!).

Tomorrow is the start of Basel's big 3 day Carnaval - where everyone dresses up in costumes, and there's floats that everyone throngs to see. Carnavals in this area of Europe seem to be a big thing. In February a big one occured in Cologne and there will be one here in Strasbourg in the upcoming week.

Even the store displays for things like shoes, clothes, cosmetics had a touch of the excitement of the Carnaval as they displayed masks or mannequins dressed in Carnaval attire. You could sense the feeling of excitment in the city - we saw a lot of people wearning little copper or silver pins of a court jester type thing (a symbol of the carnaval) and I saw over 15 different snowpeople today ranging from snowrabbits to snowfamilies! Even in Toronto I have never seen so many snowpeople in just 5 hours!

Tina and I ended up taking a ferry as well to cross the Rhine river and we were so enjoying our walk along it, with the wonderful view, and mountains looming ahead, that we walked off the tourist map and had to turn around!

The day ended off with a mini-shopping expedition of, what else? My new passion: food! Other than buying the Carnaval pins, we bought a lot of the famous Swiss chocolate and something called 'Kernashtcheillen' - I definitely have the wrong spelling! - which, a friendly local recommended to us since its only eaten during the Carnaval period. I also have twigs which we collected in Basel that will soon bloom, sitting in my room here in Strasbourg.

Overall a good daytrip out. Pictures soon to come :)