The Paper Museum

Today I had plans to go to Bern with Peter, plans that were abruptly shattered at 8:15 this morning when he called to cancel. He said he'd had terrible insomnia last night, but I say he was probably hung over. I say that mostly just because I can, because everyone knows that whatever you post on a blog is incontrovertibly true! I thought briefly about going to St. Gall by myself instead, because that seems like a better place to go alone than to Bern, but then I went back to sleep instead. To make up for it I decided to enjoy some time walking around Basel, in particular the St. Alban neighborhood, which is near where my running club meets. I also went to the Paper Museum, which is in the same area.

This is some church - the placard on the side said it was started in 1280:

And this is the St. Alban Tor, which means gate. It's one of the few remaining original gates to the city.

The actual gate part reminds me of that scene in the Princess Bride when they're trying to stop Princess Buttercup's marriage to Prince Humperdinck.

It looks like people actually live in it now, which is incredibly awesome. I wonder how much that rent goes for! This is what makes me think it's inhabited:

Someone put out a table and chairs on that terrace, and there's a chain going across that says "Privat."

On this side of the gate is a nice park, which I think is a dog park, based on all the little signs with pictures of dogs scattered around. My running club often stops and stretches in this park, though, and I haven't seen many dogs. I have seen other running clubs, however.

Here's a section of the old city wall, which presumably once connected to that gate. I mean, if you could just walk between them (or build buildings and streets between them as it is now), what would be the point?

These are some other random pictures from that neighborhood:

Look at the ducks!

I think this is just about the cutest building ever.

The building on the right is a youth hostel. I think when Patrick and I come back through Basel to fly out, we'll probably stay there, since it looks great.

After wandering around, I wound up at the:

Swiss Paper Museum!

It was a really odd museum, housed in an old paper mill and still functioning as one. The exhibits were fairly interesting, showing the history of writing, paper making, and printing. There were some hands-on activities like trying out calligraphy pens, making water marks, and printing, but these were overrun by children so I passed.

In those pictures you can see how they get power, and then one of the machines that gets powered. This thing was making a huge racket. I guess the idea is that you put a ton of rags in a vat of water and beat them with these hammers until they become pulp.

The funniest part of the museum was the quirky coat room:

How random is that? Overall I think the museum was worth seeing. B+ or A-. Perhaps if I was Monson I would give it an A--!