We are spending Christmas Day this year in Basel. We awoke to sun, normal for Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere but a little unusual here, also the snow that had fallen the last couple of weeks has all but disappeared due to the mild weather we have had the past couple of days.
Although quiet, we had a lovely day, speaking to family and friends at home, then having a nice Aussie leg of lamb with all the trimmings for dinner followed by apple strudel for dessert, not a traditional Christmas dessert here, but one we felt suited the occasion and location.
BOXING DAY - THE BLACK FOREST or the Schwarzwald
Another bright and sunny day so we pack a picnic lunch and drive north to the Black Forest.
The Black Forest or Schwarzwald in German, is blessed with a particularly rich mythological landscape. It is said to be haunted by werewolves, sorcerers and witches with helpful dwarfs trying to balance the scales. This is also where Hansel and Gretel got the better of the wicked witch, and of course the home of Black Forest Cake, a rich chocolate cake layered with cream and cherries.
But on this sunny Boxing Day in 2008, we see no mythological creatures, nor eat any cake, but climb the hills and descend into the valleys of this area, rich in timber it has been a source of wood products since the 13th century.
The cuckoo clock originated here, and in Triberg there are many shops with clocks of all sizes for sale, as well as a couple of houses done up to look like clocks.
We spend a lovely day touring this famous region in Germany, stopping in Schiltach,
I think the most traditional and picturesque villages we have seen since Bavaria, with it's wooden framed buildings. It's dark before we head back to our base in Basel and to a couple of lovely cats, wondering I'm sure where their dinner is!
Don't you just hate it when you have to use a public loo and you just know the seat is dirty. Well take a look at this, we think it's one of the best inventions we have seen in a long while.
We first saw these in service stations in Germany but didn't have a chance to get a photo, but lucky for all of you, while at the Museum of History in Basel yesterday I had to make a stop at the ladies room and not only were they free, (it usually costs .50 cents at least to use the facilities in Europe) but I just happened to have my camera with me, so here it is.......................................
To start the action you only have to hold your hand close to the button to start it, but here they also had a container of seat cleaner in a dispenser, just in case you wanted to be extra sure of a clean seat, but we have to remember we are in Switzerland!
So if anyone would like further information on this handy gadget, please contact either Brian or myself, your local representatives here in Switzerland, for further information.
Switzerland, is not a particularly large country, with the Alps at its core, it has an area of only 41,293 square kilometres, or using Tasmania again as a reference about 2/3rd's it's size.
Called the cross road of north and south Europe, it’s borders link it to France in the west, Germany in the north, Liechtenstein and Austria in the east, and Italy in the south.
We are situated in Basel for the next 5weeks, which is in the north-west of the country and on the Rhine River
The language spoken here is mostly German, although most Swiss speak at least a little English, so we haven’t had too much of a problem with making ourselves understood. We are picking up a few words and with only 2 TV stations in English, CNN and a really bad BBC one that only shows really old and bad British comedy’s, we watch some of the German shows and have fun trying to work out the plot, or make up our own if we can’t figure out theirs.
Being close to Christmas, there's a large Christmas market at the Barfűsserplatz in Basel, with over 300 stalls selling everything from gifts and decorations to steaming Gluhwein and German sausages on a bun, something for everyone.
The houses, shops and streets are decorated with lights and now it's dark by 5pm, and for the past two days we have had snow so it really looks like a ‘Winter Wonderland’.
Karen our Kiwi host, who has headed south to visit relatives in NZ as well as Brisbane and Sydney, kindly left us passes to get us into all the museums and art galleries here in Basel as well as the neighbouring areas in France and Germany so we have lots to keep us busy.
This week spent hours at Augusta Raurica, at Augst a few km’s from here at a museum with ancient ruins from it’s inhabitants from over 2000 years ago. It has a fantastically preserved amphitheatre, bath house and even where they used to be baptized. The museum has thousands of items from coins to huge silver and gold platters, mostly found while the now inhabitants were doing the excavations for building their homes etc.
There is lots to see here, we didn't get to Zurich when passing through last time, and we will have to make a few trips to Germany and France to stock up on wine.
So keep checking out our blog and we will try to keep it interesting for you too.
This is a weblog to record the travels and adventures of Brian and Julie. We live on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland at present.
This year we are off on our Big Adventure. Leaving in April 2008 we plan to travel. No definite plans at the moment. Just off to see the world after working too hard for too long.
We are spending Christmas Day this year in Basel. We awoke to sun, normal for Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere but a little unusual here, also the snow that had fallen the last couple of weeks has all but disappeared due to the mild weather we have had the past couple of days.
Although quiet, we had a lovely day, speaking to family and friends at home, then having a nice Aussie leg of lamb with all the trimmings for dinner followed by apple strudel for dessert, not a traditional Christmas dessert here, but one we felt suited the occasion and location.
BOXING DAY - THE BLACK FOREST or the Schwarzwald
Another bright and sunny day so we pack a picnic lunch and drive north to the Black Forest.
The Black Forest or Schwarzwald in German, is blessed with a particularly rich mythological landscape. It is said to be haunted by werewolves, sorcerers and witches with helpful dwarfs trying to balance the scales. This is also where Hansel and Gretel got the better of the wicked witch, and of course the home of Black Forest Cake, a rich chocolate cake layered with cream and cherries.
But on this sunny Boxing Day in 2008, we see no mythological creatures, nor eat any cake, but climb the hills and descend into the valleys of this area, rich in timber it has been a source of wood products since the 13th century.
The cuckoo clock originated here, and in Triberg there are many shops with clocks of all sizes for sale, as well as a couple of houses done up to look like clocks.
We spend a lovely day touring this famous region in Germany, stopping in Schiltach,
I think the most traditional and picturesque villages we have seen since Bavaria, with it's wooden framed buildings. It's dark before we head back to our base in Basel and to a couple of lovely cats, wondering I'm sure where their dinner is!
