Basel and Solothurn

Yesterday was our shopping day in Basel. We decided that we’d just go into Basel, walk around the town without any particular goals, and get presents for people. After a leisurely breakfast with Esther that involved a large number of delicious cheeses, we drove into Basel. It took a little longer than we’d thought, since we had to find a parking garage. After navigating through winding city streets, some of which abruptly terminated in pedestrian areas (that’s how we saw the Munster (cathedral) – we never went back to it), we finally found our way to the garage at the city centre – only to find that it was full. We then crossed the Rhine and found a parking garage just across the main bridge from the pedestrian area. A bonus to the garage was that it was located next to a large playground with numerous climbing gyms and structures, sandboxes, swings, pingpong tables, foosball tables and benches. There was even a large portable building which contained washrooms and a snack bar. This was a “Robi” playground, apparently quite common in Basel, which prides itself on being family friendly. Our progress into Basel was therefore delayed slightly as Torsten delightedly ran around the playground, played in the sand, and climbed into the big wooden structures.

After we dragged Torsten away from the playground, we traversed the pedestrian area near the parking garage, went across the bridge to the main old area of town, and walked along the pedestrian area there, doing some shopping. In doing so, we passed by the Rathaus (town hall), which is brightly painted with figures, such that it almost glows in the sun. There was a small market in front of the Rathaus, primarily selling food. I won’t go into detail about our shopping – suffice it to say that it was satisfying. By then, it was past lunchtime, so we went to find a place to eat. Ingo had seen some places along the Rhine, so we headed back to see if we could find a place with a view. En route, Torsten, who was in my arms at the time, started excitedly saying “Boon! Boon!” which normally means balloon – but we couldn’t see one around, so we started looking for what else he might mean, like moon, or ball, as we carried on walking. Suddenly, he became quite upset, and squirmed around in my arms, so I put him down. He ran back, to a door that was recessed, and sure enough, there was a green McDonald’s balloon lying there. He picked it up and was happy again.

We and the balloon found our way to a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the river. There, I had the daily special – veal kidneys in a Marsala sauce with green salad and rosti – and Ingo had steak tartare with toast. Torsten had fish fingers that were actually real fish, just breaded, very yummy. We finished off with strawberry ice cream for Torsten, fresh pineapples and lemon sorbet for me, and a maple walnut parfait for Ingo. During the meal, we had a lovely view of the Rhine, and watched boats going up and down. There was also a very good view of the bridge, so Torsten could watch the streetcars and buses. There were a couple of ferries moving people back and forth across the Rhine; we considered taking one back over the Rhine to get to the parking garage, but later decided not to, as we had a lot of bags and it would have been a bit of a hassle. All in all, it was a wonderful lunch.

We still lacked a few presents, so after lunch, we headed out again. This time, I had the luck to find a well-stocked children’s book store, so I browsed through many books and picked up a few nice German books for Torsten. Later that evening, I read some of them to him, and he seemed to like them, which bodes well. We also managed to pick up a battery charger for Ingo’s camera battery, as we’d forgotten our adaptor/transformer at home – the one we got has a car charger, so we’ll be able to use it at home as well. Otherwise, we didn’t find anything of note, other than a really, really tacky tourist shop with the ugliest souvenirs imaginable. I can’t imagine how it stays in business!

Heading back to Uwe and Esther’s, I was really struck by the fact that we were leaving a major city at around 4:30 pm, and there wasn’t a hint of a traffic jam. There was certainly traffic, but at no point did it ever stop or even slow down noticeably. I guess that’s what having a really good public transit system will get you.

When we got back to Uwe and Esther’s, Torsten refused to nap, as Leandro (“An-jo”) was playing outside, and he wanted to join in. I went upstairs and helped Esther grate potatoes for the giant rostis that she was making for dinner, until I was interrupted by Ingo yelling for help – Torsten had had a poop explosion in his pants, overflowing both from top and bottom, which constituted a 5 alarm poop emergency! We cleaned him up, soaked his clothing, and popped him directly into a bath. After bath was dinner, and after dinner (and a lovely rhubarb bread pudding made from rhubarb grown in Esther’s garden) was bedtime.

Today, we decided to go to Solothurn, which is supposed to be the nicest baroque city in Switzerland. Our visit there started off slowly, as Torsten fell asleep just as we were pulling into the underground parking garage – we therefore spent the first hour in Solothurn sitting in the car and waiting for Torsten to wake up from his nap. For your information, there’s nothing baroque about that parking garage.

After Torsten woke up, we headed into the old city. The garage is very near the cathedral, so that was the first thing we saw as we emerged. To be specific, the first thing Torsten saw was the stair going up to the bell tower, and he ran to it, saying “Up, up!”. So we climbed up. It was very steep, and very high, but did afford a very nice view of Solothurn. There was a man at the top who prevented people from going outside to look until they had paid admission – smart, as nobody is going to refuse to pay the 3 francs after climbing up those interminable stairs! The bells were really huge as well. Going down, I put Torsten in the sling, and midway down, as the stairs grew wider but we lost the handrail, we put him in the backpack. The ticket collector actually came down right after us; it seems they close the tower for several hours at midday, much to the chagrin of the tourist who was halfway up the stairs as we were descending.

Solothurn is a little odd – there are all these fantastic baroque building interspersed among quite normal looking buildings, and you really have no warning that they’re there unless you’re specifically looking. The Jesuit church, for example, is along the main street, sandwiched between some shops – no space between them. Same with the clock tower, which is gorgeously painted and decorated.

We wandered around, looking at shops and buildings, and suddenly it was lunchtime. We found a little square with several restaurants on it, and chose the one that looked least snooty. It was awfully funny though – Swiss German really isn’t that similar to Hochdeutsch; the waitress came over and said something incomprehensible, which I assumed was asking us if we were ready to order, so I did. Afterwards, Ingo wondered if she was asking Torsten’s name. No idea. Hopefully she WAS just asking about our order! I had little veal bits in a mushroom sauce with rosti and a green salad, and Ingo had a goulash soup with a vegetarian spaetzle dish. Torsten just ate our stuff, but he wasn’t really that hungry, as he’d been nibbling on bread sticks all morning.

After lunch, we wandered around some more, looked in a few more shops (everything is very expensive, but usually also very nice), and went into the cathedral for a brief look around. It’s a very nice baroque cathedral, and we are now kicking ourselves for not picking up a book on it when we were at the top of the tower – they apparently don’t sell any at ground level! Torsten ran around pointing at Baby Jesus and telling me it was a baby. Finally, we wound up going into a confectionary shop and picking up a cake for Uwe and Esther, a Solothurner Torte. We had it tonight after dinner….mmmmm, yummy!!! It was a very good ending to a very good dinner, as Esther cooked mushroom risotto.

Tomorrow, we are going to go up the Rigi, a mountain, and have a picnic lunch, and then go onto Lucerne. As it’s the weekend, Uwe, Esther and Leandro are showing us around – I expect to have a lot of fun!