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Recently I had to go to Basel for two weeks as part of a work assignment. This meant I had another opportunity to explore a new city but more importantly to spend some time with my close friends Mauro and Saskia. If you went back a few blog posts to about this time last year, you will be able to see a few photos of their wedding. So instead of the usual routine of arriving at the airport and looking for a taxi to take me to the hotel, Mauro came through to collect me. While waiting in the queue in immigration, I got a text from him saying “remember to exit into Switzerland”. I was pretty confused by it, until I got my bag and was about to exit through to France. At the end of the baggage hall there are two signs, one pointing to the exit to France and the other to Switzerland. I took the correct one needless to say.
Mauro is also a keen photographer, so we quickly started making plans for a few walks around town to discover Basel in more detail. First though it was to the hotel to drop off the bags and then onto their house for supper. Both Saskia and Mauro looked after me very well during the two weeks I was in Basel. It was normally a case of work during the day and then spending the evenings chatting away or walking around exploring.
Basel itself is a small city dating back to 374 AD, which is dominated by two of the worlds biggest pharmaceutical companies, namely Novartis and Roche. Basically from Mittlere Brücke (Mid-Rhine Bridge), if you had to look one way, you would see the Novartis campus and the other way the Roche campus dominating the sky lines. What caught my eye the most, was the artwork by Jean Tinguely. As a painter and sculptor, he is best known for sculptural machines or also known kinetic art. They are dotted all over the city and you can spend hours looking at them working away.
During our walks, we explored the old city and also walked along the Rhine. Eventually making our way to the harbour by means of a tram. At the harbour you get to stand at the point where three countries come together, namely Switzerland, France and Germany. The photos below show what we experienced during our walks. Hope you enjoy.
