A typical route to leave Switzerland when you're heading north to France is traveling
via Basel, which is a great international city right on the border, and while you're
changing trains, perhaps you'll have enough time to take a look at the city of Basel.
In our case we only had a hour and a half between trains, but you can leave your luggage
of the station, hop in a taxi and head right into downtown Basel which is very close to
the train station, of course.
Our driver dropped us off at Claraplatz, only took about ten minutes to get here from the
station.
And this is part of the new town.
You see it's a lovely little square and flowers and benches and shops around it, and the tram
line, lots of trams running through Basel.
Trams make an ideal way to travel for visitors with little time, because the service is frequent,
so we figured okay, let's hop on the tram and head into the Old Town, crossing the river
Rhine.
You'll find that you can see the highlights of Basel in just about one hour, and if you're
really pressed for time head straight for the main square of the Old Town, the Marktplatz,
the marketplace, and you'll find there's food stands, lots of people cheese and flowers
for sale, and maybe you can get a quick lunch at the sausage stand.
And don't worry about the schedule, because this market is open every day of the week.
The town hall has a magnificent delicately carved front with f, a ine clock, a belfry
pointed like an arrow, fresco paintings and a heralded arms in splendid plume bearing
the coat of arms of Basel.
Its iron gate is like a great window blind embroidered in open ironwork.
All over the courtyard there are statues and doors of carved wood.
A stone staircase leads from the court to the vestibule on the first floor, and it's
all freely open to the public.
Of course you could spend several days enjoying Basel and its surroundings.
There is so much to see here.
For example, you could visit forty different museums and soak up the multicultural ambience
of the city with that international location at the border of Switzerland, France and Germany.
And with it all, they claim a Mediterranean flair, with three hundred days of sunshine
a year and a fair temperate climate.
Basel is generally counted among the cities with the highest standard of living in the
world, so you could really enjoy an extended stay here.
However, in our case we're just changing trains so we're giving you a quick look.
There are ten different tram lines that run through the center of the city and at the
marketplace there are two lines that will take you directly back to the train station,
only takes about five or ten minutes to make that quick little journey.
It's a scenic ride.
You'll see more of the city along the way, and you'll notice there are very few automobiles
or buses in the center.
They rely more on the trams and bicycles and walking.
And you'll soon be back at the Bahnhof ready to resume your journey.
As mentioned, we only had an hour and 1/2 between trains and we managed to see this
much of Basel in just one hour.
That was an hour very well spent and gave us lots of reasons to come back again in the
future and spend more time in this great city.
The large train station straddles the border of Switzerland and France but you'd never
know it because there's no passport control between these two friendly countries.
We are here to catch the high-speed TGV that will speed us on our way into France.
We have a big series of movies about Switzerland taking you to most of the great places.
We will bring you to Lucerne and up to Mount Titlis, Mount Rigi, over to Interlaken, up
to the Jungfrau.
We will see the Shilthorn, Lauterbrunnen Valley, Trummelbach Falls, Grindelwald, Bern, then
on to Zermatt, the Matterhorn, yes we will have a look at the Gornergrat, up the Sunnegga,
do some hiking, show you the village then on down to Lugano and Locarno in the southern
part of Switzerland, the Ticino we also take you to the great city of Zürich.
Look for them in our Swiss collection.