Easter = Museums

Much to my surprise, Basel kept most of its museums open despite the Easter holiday! Apparently shutting down for the long weekend involves only shops and businesses - restaurants and museums remain open. And as a bonus, since it is the first Sunday of the month, many of the museums are free! I took advantage of that and visited three museums today, all of them part of the Basel Historical Museum, which has four (themed) locations. The only one I missed was the Coaches and Sleighs Museum, which sounds ridiculous, but I would have gone if only it was closer. I'm not ready to venture across the river just to see some old carriages, plus that one is free all the time.

Up first, the Music Museum (of course). This one is practically on my block but for some reason I forgot to take a picture of it. I'll have to update this with a picture soon. It's located in an old prison, with all the cells housing collections of musical instruments, so that was pretty cool. Overall it was OK, but if you've seen collections of old instruments before, it was nothing new. They advertise the fact that you can hear lots of different musical examples, but that was a little disappointing because it wasn't recordings of the actual instruments on display, just generic recordings of "flute" or "harpsichord."

Next up, the regular Basel History Museum, which apparently tells the story of Basel's history. I say apparently because all the information was in German, so I didn't learn much. There were some cool displays of reliquaries, but nothing too exciting. The best part was the building - the museum is housed in an old church:

Here's a side view:

Finally, the one I almost skipped, The House in the Cherry Orchard (or something like that). This is an 18th-century home that's been preserved and filled with furniture and other items from that time. Some of them were original to the home and some were taken from other places, but all in all, it was pretty cool. It  was greatly enhanced by the copious information provided in English, and it told about how each room would have been used and what different items of furniture were and where they came from. This was the best of the three, I would say. Plus, I met a super-friendly guard who wanted to tell me all about C.S. Lewis for some reason.

I didn't get a picture of the front of the museum, but here it is from the back garden:

This pagoda was in the garden:

And for some reason, this is what was displayed inside (sorry about the glare):

What are they? Why are they there? Who knows? There was no information about them, not even in German, and there was nothing else in the building. Pretty bizarre. Despite that, this was definitely the winning museum of today, and probably the only one I'll revisit at some point.

Shopping!

Well I survived my first shopping trip in Switzerland! I had some idea of where there was a grocery store so I meandered over there, with a quick stop in at the tourist information center. But I got so many brochures that I had to go home to drop them off. Plus, it started to rain and I wanted my umbrella. Luckily when I was home I thought to bring a bag with me, because it seems like the grocery stores don't just give you bags. That could have been a disaster. The store was nice and I found some things I didn't expect to see, like curry paste and coconut milk, though I didn't buy much. There was also all sorts of produce that I didn't recognize so that should be fun to figure out in the coming weeks! It was crazy busy out today, I guess because everything is closed tomorrow and Monday because of Easter. Here's a shot of the Barfüsserplatz, one of the big shopping areas/intersections:

There were people everywhere. Being in the supermarket was a little intimidating, but luckily everything seems to work the same way and "Visa" is a universally understood word. The one big difference was the huge restaurant areas in the store - there was a sushi place and pizzas and sandwiches and all sorts of stuff.

Here are some pictures of things I saw on the way to the supermarket:

This is the Tinguely fountain, designed by the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, who is a huge name around here. He's famous for making kinetic sculptures like this. It was pretty cool to see the water spraying everywhere, but a little out of place in the gray, cool weather. I wonder if people play in it when it's warm out?

And here's some church:

This is like the 3rd or 4th church I've come across and not one of them is Catholic. My chance of seeing a High Latin Mass tomorrow seems to be rapidly dwindling...

First day in Basel

I just finished my first full day in Basel, though I'm not sure it counts considering that I slept through most of it. The long flights and time change really hit me hard! It is a little weird to be in another country, especially dealing with the language, but so far all is well.

My apartment is pretty good - the location is awesome. I'm facing a quiet street with hardly any traffic except pedestrians and the nearest trams are a few blocks away so that helps with the noise. The ground floor of the building is home to a Spanish restaurant/wine bar. It hasn't been open at all since I got here but it looks cute and it has a nice terrance:

That should be a plus in good weather, since I don't have a balcony or anything in my apartment. Here's a picture of the building:

This isn't the side I live on - my windows face the other way. It's weird, but I guess because the blocks are so narrow, many of the buildings face two streets and have openings on both sides. I forgot to take a picture of "my" side of the building, but it's basically the same, except without the cars (the street is too narrow for parking).

The inside of the apartment is pretty nice, although the furniture isn't necessarily what I would choose. It's basically all one room:

The bed"room" is off to the right, through an opening:

The bed is pretty small! It's fine for me, but it should be interesting once Patrick gets here. Luckily there's a pullout couch in the living room (so I have guest quarters if anyone wants to visit!). The kitchen is kind of off to the left and behind the perspective of the first picture:

Notice the lack of dishwasher and the dorm-sized fridge. The window above the sink looks out into an interior airshaft-type deal, not sure what that's for except peeking into other people's kitchens. Here's the best part of the apartment:

Yes! A washer and dryer! This is better than my apartment in St. Louis! I can't wait to try them out. First, though, I need to figure out the extensive German instructions.

I went walking around the city today but I forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures of Basel for now. I'll make sure to bring my camera tomorrow though!