Rhine Getaway Viking River Cruise
Day 12: Thursday, November 11, 2021 - Basel, Switzerland
The day's statistics:
- Weather: high 400s, mostly cloudy, breezy
- Steps: 12,645 Linda; 13,770 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 47
Gooooooooooooooood morning, Switzerland!
Our room was way up on the 14th floor. Looking out, it was foggy. It turns out it was cold too.
We headed to the third floor restaurant for breakfast. Like the ship, there was a buffet. And quite an array of
items indeed, including, of all things, meatballs; plus eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, fruit, pastery, and other
items. There were baked beans on the buffet too - just like on the ship. It must be a European thing. Also,
there was cheese topped tomatoe halves.
The eggs were a little "wet". And they served round tater tot like potatoes instead of hashbrowns, or home
fries. We both had coffee. Our first plates - can you guess who had the healthier serving?.
When we exited the restaraunt, in the area outside of it we found this rather large timepiece. Like I said before,
it's as if the Swiss are obsessed with timekeeping or something.
We returned to our room to brush, and get our jackets, and hats.
While brushing, I made this observation - something I had never seen before. The bathroom had a door (no, that
wasn't it). And the bathroom had a toilet room (no, that isn't it either). What the unique thing was is that
the door for the bathroom was the same door for the toilet room. So it could be closed either way, on the same
hinge. And the latching mechanism was magnetized so the door would latch without having to do anything other
than just closing the door.
And one other neat feature (we don't stay in hotels often, and when we do, they usually aren't "high end"), the bathroom
had a speaker that was tied to the TV, and there was a volume control on the wall in there too.
Looking out the window I noticed that the guy that probably lived in the apartment / condo (based on the furniture
and configuration, it looked like a residence rather than a hotel room) across the street was working. Had I had
a more powerful lens, I possibly could have actually seen what he was doing / working on.
And in the other direction were some houses.
Yesterday we spoke to Jim about how to get to Augusta Raurica. He wasn't too familiar with it, but his friend George
was. He gave us directions that incluced taking the #14 tram to Aeschenplatz, then the #81 to Augusta, then what
should be a short walk to Augusta Raurica.
We started out at 8:50.
On the other side of the convention center, aka the "Cheese Grater building", was the stop for the #14 tram.
We boarded the #14.
Near our stop, and the Toy Museum: "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."
And as I mentioned previously about the information available regarding the stops. Here you can see that the next
stop has transfers to trams 8, 10, 11, and 15; and buses 37, 80, and 81; and how long until the transfers arrive.
Our stop IS Aescenplatz, and we wanted the #81 bus. Like I said, the signage is very informative.
After about a 10 minute ride, we transferred to the #81 bus.
After about a total of 20 minutes, We got off the bus, and started walking. After about ten minutes we were in
an area that didn't exactly look pedestrian friendly.
In the background, those orange containers looked like temporary housing and or offices for the construction in
the immediate area. We entered the parking lot and someone happen to emerge. We asked about the museum, and he
pointed us in the direction pretty much where we came from. So we headed back, turned a few meters (OK,
yards) before the bus stop where we stopped to begin with. Turned, followed the road a bit, turned again,
followed the road a bit... and still nothing, though we passed this shop.
And these flowers, still in bloom, in early November.
We asked someone else about the museum. She said go up that road to the right, or go back that way and take
the bridge. We proceeded ahead, and started climbing a hill. Got that the top and...
It was about a half hour of time lost.
We were the first patrons of the museum this day.
One of the highlights is the story of how a casket was discovered in the middle of town, underneath a sidewalk.
The coffin was carefully removed, and a large number of artifacts were found therein.
Based on the remains that were found, and the associated artifacts in the coffin, this is a facsimile of how they
think she was buried.
In the year 351 or 352, against the background of the threat from the Germanic Alamans, silver was buried.
In the confusion of war, the treasure's owners were never able to recover it.
In the winter of 1961/62, a mechanical digger ripped the treasure from the ground. At first it lay unnoticed in
the snow. By the time the experts had become aware of the objects, many had disappeared. They only came to light
again in 1995.
Some bowls and a platter, with a close-up of the center of the platter.
Many coins (these aren't as large as they may appear in the picture).
This magnificent extendable candelabrum accompanied Marcellianus on his travels.
This little plate with niello ornamentation was part of a legacy. It is one of the oldest pieces in the treasure,
from around 300 A.D.
In Thessalonica, Emperor Constans gave Marcellianus this bowl filled with coins. 330-340 A.D.
Here is another platter. But this one is separated out from the above because the person that found this platter
had no idea of its worth because they threw it into a rubbish pit. The dish is the most richly decorated item in
the silver treasure. It reflects the prevailing taste at the transition from late antiquity to the early Middle
Ages.
This story sounds like one of those Antique Roadshow items. "I was at a yard sale and saw this painting being used
as a table cloth under a vase of fresh flowers." "What you have there ma'am is the long lost Picasso whose value
is immeasureable." Yea, that sort of thing.
The full platter, and a close-up of the metalwork in the center.
The scene is called Love Story, and it features Ariadne with Dionysus, and a satyr. 330-350 A.D.
The pieces would all be in one section, if it weren't for their background stories.
This piece was found by a boy who kept it under his bed. The images in the relief show the youth of
Achiles, before he took part in the Trojan War.
A figurine.
Not just numbered lockers, but Roman Numeral numbered lockers.
After the museum artifact section, there was a section that had some period rooms, showing how residents may have
lived at the time.
Most of the rooms provided nothing spectacular, but there was a heated bathtub - it was heated with a fire in the room below.
The model for the site as it was many, many years prior.
We were done inside, and it was time to go to our locker and don the warm clothes to visit some ruins. We saw the
ampitheater, and the temple foundation.
To one side of the ampitheater (to the left as you look at it) was some "carved out space", about 5 meters down,
showing some of the foundation stones.
This included showing how the stones had cuts in them to show how the stones were aligned / positioned.
Honestly, if it were warmer, and we hadn't walked an alternative path for a bit, we might have spend a little more
time in the area, abd visited a few more ruins.
We headed back toward the museum in order to head down the road to leave, but we saw some statues and other
artifacts to the [left] side of the building.
There was a sample of this old pebble game called Delta.
Not far from the museum we came acorss this brown squirrel. Most of the squirrels I've ever seen were gray.
We left the museum, and initially traveled down the road we arrived on. We caught this statue up the hill to our
right.
We also passed a school that happen to be just letting out. We walked along the path and came across the bridge -
that was covered too - that the woman had referenced on our way in.
We grabbed a selfie too.
The water level under the bridge may have been very low too.
More November blooms.
Near the bus stop was this vending machine. While Twix Xtra may mean King Size, it was still 2.60 SF, or $2.83.
Significantly higher than the US king size. Same thing with the can of Coke - don't know how large it is, but
it is 3.00 SF, or $3.27. For a can of Coke. A 2 liter bottle in the US, NOT on sale, is probably $1.49 or $1.99
(yes, I know, that is comparing supermarket prices to vending machine prices, which isn't exactly the same thing).
Also near the bus stop was this sign, set back from the road a little. We didn't see it when we first arrived and
started our walk, mostly explaining why we started walking in the wrong direction. If we HAD turned here, we would
have gone down the hill, through a small tunnel, along a path to the covered bridge, up the hill, past the school,
and to Augusta Ruirica - the reverse of the path we just took to get back to the bus stop.
At this more-remote location, the buses didn't stop as often as they may have closer to town. Plus there were only
two lines that stopped here too. Our bus was scheduled to stop every half-hour on the :07 and :37. And it was now
:08, so as we turned the corner of the road we were on near the bus stop, we saw our bus turn another corner as it
drove away. So we had 29 minutes to wait for our next one. As we sat in the sun, we warmed up a little. We watched
the cars go by, and talked about our trip, and what we were going to have to do that evening.
Eventually our bus showed up, we boarded and started our return. It was uneventful as we transferred to the tram.
At a point after the Maketplatz, there was this fountain.
We got off the tram one stop early like we did the previous night. We were headed back to Coop for another bottle of
inexpensive wine. Then we went to another store for different food. The store was called Migros.
But before getting ti Migros, we stopped a another store for... souvenirs: postcards, a hat for me, and a shot glass.
We finally arrived at Migros. It was about seven stories in all. When you enter the facility, you are on the main floor.
From our direction (there was another entrance on a side street), to the right were some food vendors selling pasteries,
pizza, hot prepared foods, and a couple others. The other half of the main floor was the supermarket portion (I don't know
if the prepared food sections were part of Migros, or if they were just sharing the selling space). You enter the
market area through a turnstyle sort of entery. Pretty much the only way to leave from here is through the registeres
on the same floor. This is the only floor where the supermarket doesn't occupy the whole floor (with the exception
of the top two floors which were restaraunts that we, again, didn't know if they were part of the store itself or
if they were just using the selling space).
In order to get between floors, there was an elevator, or an angled moving floor
(similar to an airport's moving floor, but between floors so people could push a shopping cart onto it, and just ride up
the next floor).
We visited the first five floors just to see what they looked like, versus actually shopping / browsing. And the
visit consisted of looking around as we ascended and decended the moving floor. As we didn't cover the whole
floor, these are comments based on what we actually saw, and remember seeing.
From a basement up: the basement had fresh veggies, some frozen foods, baked goods, dairy, meats, etc.
The main floor had the check-outs, a small refridgerator section with some refridgerated prepared foods (sandwiches
and salads) - probably to compete with the other food vendors, and candy.
The second floor had more "grocery" type items (think laundry detergent, trash bags, etc.).
The third floor had athletic gear, bicycles, scooters, games and toys, holiday items, and more.
The fourth floor had household items such as small appliances.
The top two floors were restaraunts, though we didn't actually visit them.
A selection of pastry treats and breads from the basement floor.
We grabbed some bread and cheese, a couple salads, for dinner; and a pair of slices of Schwarzwalder-Torte
Foret-noire (black forest cake) for dessert.
We were back in the hotel.
The elevator system was rather interesting. On the keypad in the elevator lobby, you enter the floor you want.
The keypad tells you which elevator to get on (they're lettered, not numbered).
Get on the elevator and wait for it to take you to your desired floor. When inside the elevator, there is no button
to press, other than the Door Open or the Door Close. While this isn't in focus (don't know what the phone camera was
focusing on), there is nothing to show anyway.
In our room, stamped into the small moveable wall where the TV was hanging - behind the wall was a small closet on one side and a coffee maker
on the other - was this saying (which translates to "is quite what it is and that's why it's already so". Whatever that may mean.)
We ate our dinner, sharing what we bought.
And it looks like, for one of the first times this trip, I didn't get a picture of a dinner. Our very last dinner on
this trip, the salads. Weird.
We ate, then packed. We were leaving very early, and wanted to get as organized as possible. Like we did on the ship,
we planned to have our main bags done, and to put our last change of clothes and toilet kits in our carry-ons.
The coffee was replenished so we had two pods and four creamers for the next morning. Before getting into bed, I
filled the machine's water tank so it would just have to be turned on in the early AM.
We tried to get to sleep by about 9:00 as we set our alarm for... 3:20 AM (local time).