Oct 18 - Basel Switzerland

River Cruise Itinerary

Oct 7 -8 Toronto to Amsterdam

Oct 9 - Amsterdam - Delft - The Hague - Madurodam

Oct 10 2012 - Amsterdam - MS Amadeus Princess

Oct 11 MS Amadeus Princess Amsterdam - Volendam

Oct 12 MS Amadeus Princess Dusseldorf  - Cologne Germany

Oct 13 MS Amadeus Princess Cologne - Cochem Germany

Oct 14 MS Amadeus Princess Koblenz - Ruedesheim Germany

Oct 15 MS Amadeus Princess Mannheim - Heildelberg - Speyer Germany

Oct 16 MS Amadeus Princess Strasburg France

OCT 17 Basel Switzerland

Oct 18 - Basel Switzerland

It's our last full day of our trip and we are on our own in Basel. It was a beautiful sunny day.

We strolled out and had breakfast in a small cafe.

With no particular destination in mind we window shopped along our way.

 We begin at the Mittiliere Rheinbrucke (Middle Rhine Bridge), this historic bridge is the wooden predecessor of today's stone bridge dated 1225.

We followed the Rhine River along the edge and landed in the Martinkirchplatz and then wandered up the narrow lanes towards Munster.

There were many interesting sights along the way.

We reach Munsterplatz and explore Cathedral square.

The 12th century cathedral is built of the distinctive red sandstone, and was partially rebuilt after the earthquake of 1356. On the façade we noted the statues of the city's three patron saints, Mary, Henry II of Germany and his wife Kunigunde. This used to be a Celtic and a Roman site in former times, but the current building was begun in 800 in the Romanesque style, with Gothic vaulting added later.

 Inside the church, we saw the misericord seats, a new word to me. It is defined as a ledge projecting from the underside of a hinged seat in a choir stall that, when the seat is turned up, gives support to someone standing. This cathedral has seventy-four 14th century misericords.

The Jesus window is superimposed by a six-pointed star, and the tomb of Erasmus, the famous Dutch scholar and humanist are also located in this cathedral.

Beneath the cathedral are quite a few crypts.
The tombs of bishops from the 9th to 13th century can be found in the Münster Crypt, which can be entered from both sides of the choir. On the columns, a Romanesque frieze depicts hunting and other scenes and ornamentation, while ceiling frescoes portray scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, Christ’s childhood and the lives of St Martin of Tours and St Margaret. Visitors can also see the excavated walls of the earlier 9th century cathedral. There are other monuments including dated life-size Romanesque statues of bishops, on each side of the altar.

 

 I thought the cloisters were just amazing and beautiful. And we had a great view of the tiled roof.

From the cloisters, we had a fine view of the river and its bridges, and the Black Forest and Jura.

Hotel Krafft am Rhein, situated on the northern bank with its view on the cathedral skyline opposite on the southern bank.The writer Hermann Hesse lived there for some months, and wrote there his "Steppenwolf"

Take the ferry boat ( Swiss franc 1.60 for adults, children half fare)  by the staircase behind the cathedral and cross the Rhine without a  motor.

We then decided to walk across the bridge and had a magnificent view of the cathedral.

We walked to the Basel Paper Mill but it wasn't worth the effort, it was very disappointing as we were led to believe that the area had been rejuvenated to include shops and restaurants. We then headed back towards the centre of town.

We stepped into the courtyard of the Kunst Museum and there was a copy of the Rodin statue The Burghers of Calais which was cast in 1946. There are twelve casts.

We sat in the Munsterplatz and soaked up the sun and a beer.

Time for a pizza lunch.

The pizza was so good we came back here for dinner!

Oct 17 Basel Switzerland

Oct 7 -8 Toronto to Amsterdam Oct 9 - Amsterdam - Delft - The Hague - Madurodam Oct 10 2012 - Amsterdam - MS Amadeus Princess Oct 11 MS Amadeus Princess Amsterdam - Volendam Oct 12 MS Amadeus Princess Dusseldorf  - Cologne Germany Oct 13 MS Amadeus Princess Cologne - Cochem Germany Oct 14 MS Amadeus Princess Koblenz - Ruedesheim Germany Oct 15 MS Amadeus Princess Mannheim - Heildelberg - Speyer Germany Oct 16 MS Amadeus Princess Strasburg France OCT 17 Basel Switzerland Disembarkation ended at 9:30AM after breakfast in Basel Switzerland. Located on both sides of the Rhine, in the three-country-corner of Switzerland, Germany and France, Basel is the third largest city in Switzerland. Not only diverse cultures, but also a multifaceted history, modern art and architecture converge here. We still needed to use a taxi to get to the hotel from the river cruise port, but if you have lighter baggage, then you could take a tram and walk. Trams are free if you are staying at the hotel (they give you a tram pass). Tram system is great! We headed to our hotel by taxi and checked in. We then had the day to ourselves to wander around town. Rochat Hotel Petersgraben 23 Basel, BS 4051 Phone: 41 (61) 2618140 The right bank of the Rhine in Basel, as compared to the bank on the left, is dominated mostly by old buildings. Thus, the right bank of Basel is a great place for historians, those who appreciate rich culture and heritage as well as for individuals looking to experience something new. A couple of bridges connect Grossbasel (south) and Kleinbasel (north). There are also four little ferry boats, operated for tourists' fun only, however. We set out to explore the Old City which is mostly a pedestrian only area. We found a very steep staircase to walk down, silently hoping there was an easier way to come back up. We just wandered getting our sense of direction. The first thing we notice are these amazing old homes dating from 1300! We strolled down a tiny lane and came across this mural. The Teddy Bear Museum had an exhibition of napkin folding as a western art format. We strolled down the main shopping street which contains every possible high end label that you can imagine. It was then time for lunch and we smiled as we found a Movenpick as they used to be chain that could be found in Toronto back in the 90s. This bore no relation to the Toronto format. It was a nice sunny day and we sat across from the Marktplaz and the Rathaus. You can buy cheeses, flowers, sausages, meats, breads, and a little something to munch on here. The town hall, locally known as the "Rathaus" is the seat of the Basel canton government since the XIVth century and a colourful building that looks over the market square, at the centre of the old town.

Oh, yes on to our lunch. Switzerland certainly causes sticker shock especially compared to other areas of Europe. This meal cost almost $100!!!

What I remember the most from the Movenpick chain is the rosti potatoes which you can get anywhere in Basel.

Expensive chicken wings!

We decided to continue exploring after lunch. What would the woman pictured on most Swiss coins do if freed from the confines of currency? With spear and shield set aside (and with a packed suitcase in hand), this humanistic interpretation of Halvetia shows her seemingly contemplating the possibilities from a perch looking across the Rhine not far from the border of her homeland and the wide world beyond.

A break to watch the rush hour hustling around us.

The trams just keep rushing by. Don't you just love this tram dressed as a piggy bank?

Then it was time to find somewhere for dinner.

And a stroll back to our hotel.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. For this meme, bloggers post what they finished last week, what they're currently reading, and what they plan to start this week.


We have had a very busy life recently travelling and then moving (post to come) since  my last post so this is a recap of my reading since then and it really hasn't amounted to a lot.

FINISHED:



Recap here.
I had read rave reviews of this author and must say I did enjoy his writing.
It did bother me that the main character, Cashin wasn't developed enough and left me with a feeling that I had started a series in the middle, which isn't so. There is also a policewoman that he throws in some background about her that you wish was elaborated upon.
This book feels gritty and very real.

STARTED THIS WEEK:


Recap courtesy of Goodreads.
It’s July 4, 2005, and the Frankel family is descending upon their beloved summer home in the Berkshires. But this is no ordinary holiday. The family has gathered to memorialize Leo, the youngest of the four siblings, an intrepid journalist and adventurer who was killed on that day in 2004, while on assignment in Iraq.

The parents, Marilyn and David, are adrift in grief. Their forty-year marriage is falling apart. Clarissa, the eldest sibling and a former cello prodigy, has settled into an ambivalent domesticity and is struggling at age thirty-nine to become pregnant. Lily, a fiery-tempered lawyer and the family contrarian, is angry at everyone. And Noelle, whose teenage years were shadowed by promiscuity and school expulsions, has moved to Jerusalem and become a born-again Orthodox Jew. The last person to see Leo alive, Noelle has flown back for the memorial with her husband and four children, but she feels entirely out of place. And Thisbe —Leo’s widow and mother of their three-year-old son—has come from California bearing her own secret.

Set against the backdrop of Independence Day and the Iraq War, The World Without You is a novel about sibling rivalries and marital feuds, about volatile women and silent men, and, ultimately, about the true meaning of family.

2012 books read (88 to date):
The Coast Road - John Brady
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Bulgari Connection - Fay Weldon
Good Bait - John Harvey
The Heretic's Treasure - Scott Mariani
Dead I Well May Be - Adrian McKinty
The Devil's Elixir - Raymond Khoury
A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin
GB84 - David Peace
The Emperor's Tomb - Steve Berry
Stonehenge Legacy - Sam Christer
Inquisition - Alfredo Colitto ABANDONED!
The Troubled Man - Henning Mankell
Nineteen Seventy-Four - David Peace
Faithful Place - Tana French
Dead Like You - Peter James
Brother and Sister - Joanna Trollope
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton ABANDONED!
A Beginner's Guide to Acting English -Shappi Khorsandi
The Snowman - Jo Nesbo
The Leopard - Jo Nesbo
The Stone Cutter - Camilla Lackberg
Miramar - Naguib Mahfouz
The Gallow's Bird - Camilla Lackberg
Nineteen Seventy- Seven - David Peace
Timeline - Michael Crichton
Millennium People - JG Ballard
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 
Birdman - Mo Hayder
Clara Callan - Richard B. Wright
The Paris Vendetta - Steve Berry
Little Girls Lost - Jack Kerley
The Reutrn of the Dancing Master - Henning Mankell
Nemesis - Jo Nesbo
Dublin Dead - Gerard O'Donovan
City of Bohane - Kevin Barry
This Beautiful Life - Helen Schulman
The Copenhagen Project - K. SandersenPrague - Arthur Phillips
Fortunes of War - Gordon Zuckerman 
The Cold Cold Ground - Adrian McKinty
Before the Poison - Peter Robinson
The Mozart Conspiracy - Scott Mariani
Dancer - Colum McCann
Pig Island - Mo Hayder
Old City Hall - Robert Rotenberg
The Paris Wife - Paula McLain 
The Last Good Man - A. J. Kazinski
Homesick - Roshi Fernando
Black Friday - Alex Kava
Only One Life - Sara Blaedel
A Perfect Evil - Alex Kava
People Like Us - Dominick Dunne
The Ottoman Motel - Christopher Currie
Even the Dogs - Jon McGregor
The Red Book - Deborah Copaken Kogan
Faith - Jennifer Haigh
The Salesman - Joseph O'Connor
The Last Hundred Days - Patrick McGuinness
The Girl Below - Bianca Zander ABANDONED!
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
Drowned - Therese Bohman
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
The Paris Directive - Gerald Jay
Criminal - Karin Slaughter
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Moshin Hamid
The Good Muslim - Tahmima Anam
My Korean Deli - Ben Ryder Howe
The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville
Bad Boy - Peter Robinson
The Guilty Pleas - Robert Rotenberg
The Vault - Ruth Rendell
A Train in Winter - Caroline Moorehead
Turn of Mind - Alice La Plante
The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka
Swipe - Evan Angler
Absurdistan - Gary Shteyngart ABANDONED!
The Butterfly Clues - Kate Ellison
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
Attachments - Rainbow Rowell
Viral - James Lilliefors
Keepsake - Kristina Riggle
The Butcher's Boy - Thomas Perry
Death in Summer - William Trevor
The Broken Shore - Peter Temple

Foto Finish - Look Down

Cat Patches hosts this weekly meme. Her theme this week is Look Down.

This photo was taken at Heidelberg castle in October.

On the castle terrace, there is a “footprint” in the stone. This is purported to have been caused by a knight leaping from a third-story window when a prince made an early return to his wife’s bedroom. wearing only his

Another local legend says that the footprint was that of a knight who tried to save the princess from a burning castle.