Rhine Getaway Viking River Cruise
Day 11: Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - Basel, Switzerland
The day's statistics:
- Weather: high 400s, mostly cloudy
- Steps: 10,143 Linda; 12,173 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 14
In the morning, we showered and finished packing, and were ready to go. We put our luggage out and
we headed to the restaurant for our last meal - breakfast - on the ship during this vacatiom.
Of course, Linda had her last egg benedict, and Steve had the buffet sample.
We ate and went up to the lounge to await our tranfer. We got some coffee, and sat and talked to Arvis and Joan, from Houston,
and Arvis' twin brother Armis, from Salt Lake City. They too were staying in Basel - a total of 11 were staying in Basel.
One reason we chose to add the Basel extension to our cruise was, had we NOT done that, we would, at this point, be headed to
the airport. We were in Switzerland. Possibly - probably - never going to be in Switzerland again. We at least wanted to see
more of it than what one would "just stopping by".
On our previous cruise, we spent an entire day in our cruise's final city of Budapest, so an extension wasn't
really necessary.
Before and during our transfer - all 17 minutes of it - we captured some sights.
This park, adjacent to where the ship was docked, had a slide (?) and a larger structure (that sort of looked
like a cat).
Our guide was Jim. He talked to us a bit about Basel (there wasn't too much to tell in 17 miutes).
A couple items of note was that close to 80% of Swiss energy came from water in 2021, while it is usually about 2/3 of the
total (while a remarkable feat, remember that Switzerland is about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined).
Also, Switzerland is expensive due to import tariffs, high rents, and high salaries. Switzerland's largest
industry is pharmaceuticals (not banking like one may think).
When we arrived at the Hyperion hotel, the rooms were not ready yet, so all our luggage was stored on the side. We were issued our
listening devices, and transporation cards. The transportation cards were good for the entire duration of our stay in Basel, not
just for an hour or even a day. The Swiss metro system was a little different than Amsterdam as there was no need to scan the
transportation card. In fact, it was essentially on the honor system as no one specifically verified the cards. But there were
random spot checks and if you didn't have one, the fine was 100 Swiss Francs (I'll use the abbreviaion SF for that if I need to
reference the currency again as there is no code for SF like there is for, say, Eruo [€] or Yen [¥]). Incidentally,
the REAL currency code for Switzerland is CHF, which means Swiss Franc in other languages, and internationally.
At about 10:00, we departed to start our [mostly] walking tour. Right outside the hotel was a tram stop, Gewerbeschule. For us, we
were told that the #6 was the primary train for this stop. There was a 6A and 6R, the A for "away" and R for "return". This was the
pneumonic we used to remember what tram we needed coming and going to the hotel (and not what the 'A' and 'R' actually stood for).
As mentioned in Amsterdam, the Swiss transporation system is great. When we got on the #6, we saw the signboard
that showed the upcoming stops, and what transfers were available at each of those stops.
The main stop, and the one at which we were getting off, was Marketplatz (no, it isn't on this board at the
moment).
More sights, from the tram as well as part of our tour.
The government building.
"Toy World", and the window fronts. We had already planned to visit this in the afternoon. At least now we
knew where it was. Finding it again, well... that's another story.
This fountain runs 365 days a year. And it has a very complex set-up.
And continuing on.
Once the governors home.
The church.
There are two sun dials on this church. One shows noon on the winter solstice, the other on the summer solstice.
At ground level in one section off the main church, there were some crypts and a courtyard.
Some of the plaques were written in Latin, from the pre-reformation period; and others were in German, from the post-reformation period.
Some sculpture work.
Out the back of the church was a plaza that overlooked the Rhine.
Someone in our group thought it looked like there was a helicopter on the roof of that building. Some of the
perspective is lost when trying to demonstrate this, but hopefully you get the idea. I helped settle
the arguement with the zoom lens. (Turns out, it wasn't - it was a crane.)
OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming... (not necessarily in the order they were encountered.)
More buildings with the year they were built on them. These were all pretty much next to each other.
A public fountain, not needed as much today as it was "back in the day"...
A pair of boot scrapers. Again, not needed as much today as it was "back in the day".
A private courtyard.
A silk merchant's home.
Our group making its way down an alley staircase that ends at the Marketplatz. So we've gone full circle...
There were a number of merchants, both on booths and in stores, around Marketplatz (hence the name).
I ran into the McD's while we waited for the tram to get this shot. To give you an idea of how expensive it is,
the Big Mac is 6.50€, or $7.35 - for just the Big Mac. And a 4-piece McNuggets was 4.10€, or $4.64 -
that's $1.16 per nugget. And a Happy Meal is 7.20€, or $8.15. That wouldn't make me too happy...
There was a political meeting of some sort going on, and it was just ending. There were also some holding
"affordable housing" signs. We were in the courtyard.
You'd think the Swiss had some sort of obsession with time, or something...
This was adjacent to our hotel.
The walking tour was over. And so were our excursions with Viking. Everything else we did for the next two days, not including the
tranfer to the airport, was on our own, though we had Jim available as our on-site host (like Doninique in
Amsterdam), for questions and guidance.
Our room still wasn't ready. We took the opportunity to talk to Jim about our intensions for traveling the next day (there
will be more details on Day 12). He wasn't sure how to get where we wanted to go, but thought
his friend George might know, and he was stopping by shortly to go to lunch with Jim.
It was lunch time and we headed right back out again. Had we REALLY
planned for it, we could - and should - have just staying in town. At this point we just don't remember why we
didn't, and hindsight is golden, but since we were going to the Toy Museum anyway, NOW it just makes sense.
So we got back on the tram, and headed back from whence we came - Marketplatz. Jim had recommended eating near Marketplatz, but
not necessarily in Marketplatz. So when we got back there, we went up a street to the left of the building where the McD's
was. We went up a hill, about two or three blocks, and randomly picked a shop, our choice being Tapas del Mar.
We had our COVID QR scanned and showed our ID. Then ordered something random from the menu since it was in German
and we had no real idea what it was, though we could actually decipher some of it. I mean, look at what Linda
ordered "patatas something something mit (with) something something rosmarin (rosemary?) und
(and) chili (chili)". Sounds interesting, right?
We had wine too, "oro Castillo" - but unlike the ship, had to actually PAY for it...
Linda had the patatas tapas del mar, and Steve the chorizo Somali clasico. We shared each other's lunches.
It was, surprisingly, enough. And for anyone that knows how I eat, that IS a surprise...
And yes, the waitress served our meal without first collecting our menus.
We returned to Marketplatz, turned right, and headed toward the Toy Museum. It turns out we had to walk a little further
than we thought we did, and we weren't even sure we were in the right place. We criss-crossed a couple streets,
double-backed once, wandered and meandered. You'd think this former Boy Scout would be able to read a map a little better,
right? But it isn't like I've had to read a map for years (not including previously on this trip).
We eventually found the Toy Museum. The images from the windows in the front are above, as we saw them on our walking tour.
Our metro card actually got us half-price entry into the museum, so it was only 7 SF for the two of us.
The museum was four stories, with the first housing a small cafe, gift shop, reception desk, and lockers. But what
were the lockers for? Jackets. And cameras. Yes, they prohibited photography.
The receptionist directed us to the elevator to the first floor. We walked a loop to the left and just before the
elevator were stairs. So we took the stairs up each floor the rest of the way. In the stairwell, each landing,
and even some of the staircase walls, had more items on display, though these were photos and smaller trinkets.
As a whole, it was interesting, but didn't have as many "toys" as we were expecting - I mean, it IS called the
TOY Museum...
The first floor was essentially Teddy Bears, including the first "Teddy Bear", and Steiff bears.
The second had a Capuano exhibit, some stuffed animals - animated and not, and a couple big ones, 1 to 2 meters
tall. (Oh, excuse me, three to six feet tall), some Missoni displays, and other diaramas.
Third floor had a section on Santa / Saint Nicolas, some animated rides, more bears, and dolls.
Finally, the fourth floor was... more bears and some shoes, dolls, doll houses, carousels, and marionettes.
The diaramas and doll houses were extremely detailed and some were rather elaborate.
I can't show you a lot of them as, as I said before, photography was probited. However, I was trying to take some notes about
what we were looking at and the device may or may not have actually captured a few images, but I just can't be certain whether
that happened or not, and whether the images are clear or not because, well, it WAS by "accident"...
We had eventually walked all the way up, so we took the stairs back to the first floor.
Like the Gugenheim, it probably would have been better to take the elevator to the top and walk down as we finished each floor.
Regardless, when we got to the bottom, "someone" just had to visit the gift shop. But COVID restrictions only permitted one patron
in the shop at a time. So I waited outside, next to the reception desk. That's when I saw the security system monitor. It was a
50-60cm monitor (~20-24 inches, it's not my fault you don't want to learn the metric system) with 30 or so different feeds displayed
at once. And no one was actually monitoring it. Linda wasn't in the shop long and when she came out I may or may not have said to
her "hold on a minute" and I may or may not have run up to the second floor, and I may or may not have used my cellular pocket
device to convert the real analog world into a digital moving equivilent thereof.
This animation, like the others at the museum, were activated with a button.
We finished up at the museum, and headed in the direction of the hotel, via Marketplatz.
Jim had recommended a chocolate shop in town off the Marketplatz. We stopped in to check it out.
This particular sample is 180 grams, or 6.35 ounces, and it costs 26.90 SF. That would be 67.78 SF per pound.
Or $73.79. For one pound of chocolate. The second sample below is "only" 63.33 SF per pound...
Sorry, while I like chocolate, I don't like it THAT much...
The #6 finally showed up and we boarded. It wouldn't take long to get to where we needed to go, but we needed to
think about dinner. So we decided to stop by a supermarket called Coop (pronounced "cope").
Coop carries a variety of ready to eat foods too. And we found a bottle of Montepulciano for only 3.50 SF. So we
bought that along with some cheese, a salad, and some bread. We shared it all (except the blue-cheese looking one,
Linda ate all that).
We brought the food back to our hotel, and when we arrived at the hotel, we found that we were actually able to finally able to
formally check-in. In addition to all the standard check-in info, we were also told that the mini-bar is included. Sweet! Except
the minibar consisted of two bottles of beer, a bottle of mineral water, and two bottles of soda. No snacks. Not so sweet...
There was a coffee maker with the little pods for coffee. But only one pod of regular coffee. In a room for two.
We didn't need coffee now, but we knew we would on Friday, so we hid the pod and two creamers.
We got around to eating, and we watched a little TV. There was only one US channel, and two from
England - so the English language offerings were really slim.
We washed up, and brushed. Our cordless toothbrushes were fully charged before we left. It took until now for
them to beep that they needed charging. Fortuatenly we had our electrical adapter and a charger, so we plugged it
in and charged each of our brushes.
We settled in and went to sleep. Tomorrow was another day.