A tale of four Swiss cities (Part One)

Straight after arriving back from Porto I headed straight to Switzerland for a week of city hopping. I had only been to the country briefly before so this was a great chance to give me a better understanding of this diverse place.

My travels didn't get off to the best start as I overslept on the morning of my flight! I have never got ready so quick in my life as I rushed to the airport and to the gate. Normally I wait around a bit before the gate is open and ready for boarding but not this time! But I finally got on my way...

I arrived in Basel at around 10am and understandably was a bit tired but ready to explore the city. This is quite a unique airport as you get the choose of exiting into three countries, I chose Switzerland of course and headed straight for the bus. It took just ten minutes to get to the city centre and although there is very little sign of it the bus actually crosses the border from France to Switzerland.

I got off the bus at Basel main train station and was happy to meet up with Roman, who lives in the city and was going to show me around some of its sights. It was cloudy but also surprisingly warm (note how my coat disappears!) and a great day for looking around as it was also quiet. It was fantastic to look around the picturesque, winding streets and take in the views over the Rhine river with very few tourists and not many people around in general. After my hectic morning it wasn't surprising that I hit the deck early afternoon! Overall, after a hectic start it was a nice day exploring my first taste of German speaking Switzerland.

I enjoyed a relaxing morning the following day before I headed to the main station to catch my train to Zurich. Before I leave Basel I want to share a couple of interesting things I saw whilst wandering around the city. The first thing I want to share is this incredibly long German word you can see below - I was reliably informed that it translates into something resembling 'all year Christmas shop' but of course we all know that! The other thing I wanted to share was a cool and colourful bit of street art which featured some of the greats of music from times gone by. I'm not sure who was responsible for it but it was certainly impressive.