Still a cloudy day but thankfully a little less rainy than yesterday. We walked down to the river walk where the picture below was taken. You could walk along the river for miles here. Basel is a mix of newer buildings and the “Old Town” which is what you see here.
Below is the beautiful Rathaus building, which houses Basel’s City Hall. Across from it is a market area that is open almost every day.
We went looking for some shopping areas and found the Spalentor (Gate of Spalen) which is one of the three city gates still remaining from the 1400s (picture above). There is a lot of shopping in Basel, but very few souvenir shops. We went to the train station and were amazed at how many nice stores were located there, along with so many food options also. However, prices in Switzerland are much higher than in the Netherlands or Germany.
The above two photos show how there are very few cars driving around in Basel. Our Viking tour guide said everyone either takes the trams, buses or bikes, as parking is very expensive and hard to find. You really only see delivery trucks on most roads, and people cross the roads wherever they want to! The tram system is amazing and easy to use. We got free tram passes with our hotel stay so have taken the tram quite a few places since several lines stop right in front of our hotel.
The boat on the right in the picture above is one of several small passenger boats that are tethered to a line and cross the Rhine River back and forth with the current - no motor.
Tomorrow we have to say goodbye to Europe, how sad! We fly from Basel to Frankfort, Germany, and then home to Chicago. We hope everything goes smoothly!