4/16/18
We arrived outside Basel near Kembs France & ate. The buses came, the bags were loaded onto them and we departed the ship Viking Hild. We were given a bus ride all over Basel, population 200,000, and then did a short walking tour that included a view of the small side of town across the Rhine from behind the cathedral on the large side.
We also saw a motors-driven set of figures in a pool, which we found were made by an artist of debris at a construction site. Very whimsical & unique.
We had a snack lunch in a small but very efficient Subway-type place. Good service. Then back to the bus.
This PhotoLink may start slowly; there are two videos that load first, one of which is an action video of these various machines splashing water all about.
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The ride from Basel to Rhine Falls took about three hours, during which we viewed the lake and valley area.
We went in and out of Switzerland several times crossing the Rhine but ended at the Rhine Falls. This is the largest waterfall in Switzerland. See photos, an example at left.
On then to Zurich on the Limmat River, which is still a part of the Rhine. The Limmat flows out of Lake Zurich to the Aare, which then flows to the Rhine. Zurich was founded on the Limmat before 200 AD and the Limmat still is the heart of the city.
The Renaissance hotel was a zoo trying to handle almost 100 rooms with baggage at once. We got into our room and along came the luggage. We had to interact with Marriott to get our rewards number attached and to get internet access, but it all worked eventually. Then a bunch of convention people showed up and really clogged the place.
The staff was astounded at the number of people in the place since today is a major holiday here. This was the day they burn the Snowman, signifying the end of winter. A snowman filled with fireworks is placed on top of a huge pyre. The dignitaries ride or walk to the pyre and it is lit with great ceremony. The interval from firing to fireworks explosions is thought to be an indicator of the quality of the coming summer. This year it is average.
Then a bunch of conventioneers came into the restaurant in a herd because the place is referred to by the hotel.
Finally served, we ate very nice food and drank decent wine for 100CHF (Swiss Francs) for the two of us. Food a little unusual but good. The sun went down, the kiddies in the park behind Viaduct went inside, and we slogged back to the hotel. I stumbled onto an ATM so we now have CHF.
Then we went to the room and settled.
4/17/18
We were up at 0700 for breakfast at 0800 in the hotel. It was foggy to start but that soon burned off and the day turned out lovely with a cool breeze. We met at 0915 for the buses to the walking tour and the one-hour boat tour on the lake. There was a sort-of city tour by bus, then he dropped us off near the lake (Zurichsee). We walked our way up down and around up both sides of the river and down again.
There were lots of interesting things told and seen. Zurich has been a city since the early Roman era - a stone tablet has been found from 200 AD and there exist writings from before that. The lake froze over in 1963 but the river has never frozen. The river runs from the lake to the Arn to the Rhine and to the sea.
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All the big name shoppes are present here, because the city is a huge financial center. Banks, insurance, even some manufacturing (Tobler, Lindt, pharmaceuticals). The city is very busy with cars, trams, buses, taxis and all sorts of things attempting to run one over. And I'm told the train station is the busiest in Europe at the crossroads of the countries. Some trains that stop here will not run tomorrow because the French train people will be on strike again. I saw signs for 44 tracks as we passed through it to get our bearings for tomorrow.
There were a few yards with statuary but the one to the right was most extensive.
D had wine & I had a beer as we traveled. The beer was "Eichhof" and they use a squirrel as their label animal.
We made the circuit and departed the ferry. The bus dropped us off at the Bahnhof (train station) so we strolled through it to get an idea of the layout for the next day. Big, big place.
Then we walked across streets to the river and boarded the river cruiser, very low profile to fit under bridges. We cruised down to the Stork store and hopped off. We stopped in a chocolate shop there and bought some for the road.
Wine, beer, and German food made our lunch at the side of the river at outside tables.
After that we stopped at a souvenir store for a while. Then we bought our ticket for the tram. it came along shortly thereafter and we rode it to TechnoPark, next to our hotel.
We bought a few pastries for the evening and retired to our rooms totally worn out. But it was a good day.
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