Things to do in Basel

Yesterday evening, to wrap up day two of the Countdown, we went back to the Eugen Keidel Thermal Mineralbad. It was just as swell the second time as the first. After more than two hours of swimming around in hot water, we felt well exercised and relaxed.

Today, we started working on the Oh-Shoot-We-Still-Need-to list by visiting Basel, Switzerland. Basel is located less than an hour away from Freiburg by car, a straight shot south on the Autobahn. Yet despite being so close for the past five months, today was the very first time we drove down to see the sights.

Here are some things I enjoyed doing today in Basel, in no particular order:

1. Sipping on a free sample of warm Weihnachtstee ("Christmas tea"). While the server watched me sip and patiently hoped to make a sale off of me, I awkwardly generated polite conversation by asking what the ingredients were. As a reward, I got to hear the long list of aromatic herbs and spices breathlessly and impressively recited in melodious Schwyzerdütsch. I understood most of the items on the list, if none of the parenthetical commentary, and enjoyed the delightful foray into the world of diphthongs and swishing consonants, all gratis along with the sample of tea.

2. Purchasing a bag of authentic Basler Läckerli at the Läckerli Huus. Basler Läckerli are Basel's version of lebkuchen. They're tough, chewy little rectangular cookies with just the right balance between nuts, spices, and Orangeat and Zitronat (candied orange and lemon peel). "Läckerli," of course, is the Swiss German diminutive noun form of "lecker," and means, essentially, "little yummy thangs." "Huus" is Schwyzerdütsch for "house," which is also a fun find for an easily amused nonnative speaker.

3. Following up on buying authentic Basler Läckerli in Basel by eating authentic Swiss fondue in Switzerland. We were rejected at the first, half-empty restaurant we entered, in theory because they were booked, but in practice, probably for not looking rich enough. At a second, thoroughly crowded establishment, we successfully squeezed into the corner by the coat rack. The fondue wasn't any better than what we make in our little fondue pot at home once every year or two, but my life is more complete for having tried the Real Thing.

4. Visiting the beautiful Basel Kunstmuseum (Art Museum), where we saw works by Klee, Miro, Picasso, van Gogh, Rousseau, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Braques, Chagall, Calder, Pissaro, Rodin, Holbein, Breughel, Cranach, Dürer, Grünewald, Schongauer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Dali, Kandinsky, Marc, Giacometti, Böcklin, and many, many others. Elias and Zoe went gamely through all of the rooms with us and pretended to listen with interest to my and Michelle's non-stop lessons on art history.

5. Seeing a gold spray-painted mime on a cobblestoned pedestrian-zone shopping street taking a smoke break in a doorway. Not that I particularly enjoyed watching him smoke, just that I don't usually get to see metalicized street performers out of character.

6. Hearing eight organ grinders in succession in the Rathaus entryway. Stefan and I decided that if we ever buy a street organ, we'll go for a model by Josef Raffin in Ueberlingen--such charm, such sprightliness, such timbral variety!