Day 38 - (Travelling from [R]hine River Cruise (Basel), Switzerland to) Santa Margherita Ligure

All good things come to an end

Morning view from my cabin porthole (docked, obvs)

Today was the last day of the cruise. Well, in fact, last night was the last night of the cruise and today was disembarkation day. Some folks who had early flights were disembarking at 4:15 am! Because I was on my own tour, I had the leisurely disembarkation time of 9:00 am. Viking had arranged a taxi for me and I was leaving on a train from Basel SBB at 12:30 pm. The plan was to drop my bag in a locker at the station and wander around Basel. The afternoon and evening would be given over to train travel (7.5+ hours). The taxi driver took me to Basel SBB at the entrance nearest the baggage lockers (there are multiple entrances, apparently) and I managed to dead-reckon my way through locking my bag in a locker without any serious drama. I set Google Maps to direct me to a big church in the old town of Basel and headed off.

Charming scene across the Rhine from where the Sigrun was docked

Basel SBB main foyer

The walk was through a lovely park and then some of modern Basel, though I was clearly on the edge of the old town. I took photos of some of the interesting things I saw on the walk. The fountain in the video was a surprise when it suddenly appeared. At first, I thought the machines were playing ‘splashings’ with each other almost at random. However, having videoed it, I realised it was a clockwork routine that simulated that idea, pretty well in my view.

An old church undergoing repairs

The fountains ‘playing’

Another church

When I got to the walking target – the barfusserplatz – I discovered another Christmas market/festival being established. That kind of messed up the picturesqueness of the view but there was still plenty of old Basel to see.

The barfusserplatz with festival in place (but not open yet)

Street scene of old Basel

Street scene of old Basel

I decided to head up the hill to a church I could see above the old town. Of course, it was a steep climb, but not as long as many I’ve done on this trip.

The steep street to climb	Old houses and autumn colours	An old church, now a music academy
Cute statue in the platz outside the (now) music academy	View from the church level looking over the roofs of Basel	A design in the courtyard that has inspired a change in my backyard plans

I wandered down the ridge that the church was on and then down to river level and into the Marktplatz. The housing the ridge was all old town and kept in good order. Several buildings were undergoing (noisy) renovations internally. While I was walking around this part of the town I saw several groups of very young children, shepherded by nannies or kindergarten teachers, wandering around on excursions.

Decorated houses

More decorated houses

At the top, there’s a king’s head gargoyle

Farmers’ market

There was a farmers’ market going on in the Marktplatz, perhaps unsurprisingly. It was a bit discordant (for me) as it was a very urban setting, formal and a little severe, and the market stalls were all temporary (and modern). I don’t know, maybe I’ve been away too long. Anyway, I was wandering along the Marktplatz and my attention was caught by this enormous, ornate, bright red building, with statues and gilding. A baroque masterpiece of architecture. I had to investigate as I couldn’t see any indications on the outside of what it was. I wandered into the courtyard through an open gate and the wonder continued inside. I found a sign at the far end of the courtyard saying that it was the Rathaus (of course!) and that tours were available only at 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm. Drat! That’s a treat I would have loved to have had. It was a bit dark and red for my tastes, but genuinely a wonderful architectural monument to the city and its leadership.

The Rathaus from the Marktplatz	Detail of the statues and decorations on the front
Detail of the statue in the courtyard	The fourth wall of the courtyard (not in the panorama below)

Panorama of the interior courtyard of the Rathaus

I still had quite some time to kill, so I got my bearings on Google Maps and walked down to the Rhine and Basel’s oldest bridge.

Looking West ‘down’ the Rhine from the bridge

The bishop’s bridge, first built in the 1200s

Looking East ‘up’ the Rhine

Panorama ‘up’ the Rhine from the bishop’s bridge

I decided to head slowly back to the train station, planning to stop along the way and get a coffee and something Swiss to eat. When I finally picked a very modern cafe back in the barfusserplatz, I interacted with a waitress who didn’t have English (a first on this trip, really). However, I was able to point to the things I wanted. Well, I pointed to the short list of cakes/sweets offered (many of which I could read, like ‘Lemon Cheesecake’) and asked “Which is the most Swiss?” She was uncertain what I meant at first, but then said, “Oh, this is Swiss!” and pointed to the first one. “OK,” I said, “I’ll have that one, please” and our business was done. I should have looked more closely at the list again after that interaction. She brought me a piece of Black Forest Cake. It was nice, but not really the exploratory treat I had hoped for.

Another church in the old town	The tower on that church	Some very fancy champion He looks like a Swiss Guardsman to me
Looking across the Rhine, huge new angular buildings stand behind the old town lining the river	A very old house in the old town	The doorway of that house – note the date beside the door: 1322
A ferry crossing the Rhine	I had to include this. It should be a video but I didn’t realise what was going to happen in time to record the crucial moments. At first glance it is obviously a ferry. I thought it had a very interesting way of being moored, using a long cable from the cable that spanned the river, and wedging a stainless steel ‘pin’ into a slot on the deck. I discovered that I had completely misinterpreted that when the ferryman came out of the cabin (smoking, of course), cast off a very light bow line, and moved the stainless steel ‘pin’ (which is a lever!) from one side of the boat to the other. That brought the bow across the flow of the river, and that flow then pulled the boat out into the river, which pulled the cable attached to the ‘pin’ along the cable that spanned the river (on a little wheeled mechanism). So the ferry crossed the river entirely powered by the river’s flow against the slightly angled bow. Genius!

After coffee, I walked back to the train station by a different route, which was through the more modern part of Basel adjacent to the old town. I was back in the station and in possession of my bag well before my train was scheduled to depart. It was only when I got into the platform part of the station that I recognised which of the stations it was that I knew I had previously visited. Basel was where I’d had to risk following my interpretation of German instructions to get on a different train to make my actual connection to Utrecht.

Modern street leading out of the old town

This street was entirely pedestrian and crowded with al fresco dining arrangements for restaurants

The Basel SBB platforms that triggered my recognition

The train trip ‘home’ was uneventful. I spent a lot of it developing a post for the blog, but the trains didn’t offer wifi and my phone’s connectivity was tricky because you’d lose connection every time you went into a tunnel, and there were a lot of tunnels! I did manage to capture some photos of the passing Swiss countryside – well, Alps, really. They’re not great photos and, as usual, there were many scenes that I saw that I couldn’t photograph. Here’s a small selection to show some of what I saw.

The Alps in the distance over farmland	The Alps in the distance over a town	Getting much closer to the high mountains
Definitely coming into the mountains	Is that The Matterhorn?	Flying through the mountains, through tunnels from one valley to the next

Daily facts: Location: (Travelling from [R]hine River (Basel), Switzerland to) Santa Margherita Ligure Temp: 12 Weather: Sunny, patches of cloud