Basel and Prague
Before our arrival in Basel, we considered it to be little more than a rest stop with an airport. Our plan in visiting was simply to recover from our disappointing hike of the Westweg while we waited for our flight to Prague, where we thought the real fun would begin. Accordingly, we knew absolutely nothing about the city except for its location on the map and that it had a campground where we could stay our first night. From Kandern, we took a bus to Lorrach and a train onward to Basel itself, and on the train was the first time we opened up our guidebook to the “Basel” section.
With all this in mind, imagine the looks of surprise on our smelly, dirty faces, when we arrived to find an attractive and cosmopolitan city waiting for us. On the short trip from the train station to our campsite we crossed over the border from Germany to France, rode the efficient tram system, and passed all manner of international cuisine and shops. Of course, taking a shower was the highest priority once we checked in at camp, but right after that we were pulling out the guidebook and excitedly making plans. Later, despite having three other countries local cuisine to choose from, we had dinner at an Italian pizza joint on a nearby square.
In the morning, we decided we had camped enough the last few days and moved our stuff to a hostel on the Swiss side of town. From there, we did our favorite thing in a new city and took a free walking tour! There isn’t much to report about the history of Basel except it’s another prosperous Swiss city that doesn’t seem to have suffered any real casualties since the Dark Ages when the Plague came through.
Through the tour, we also got to experience some genuine Swiss culture, which is a bit like experiencing German and French culture together from safely inside a comfortable bubble – none of the dangerous or rough parts make it through, but neither do any of the interesting ones. Swiss summer culture appears to just be chocolate, banking, expensive gadgets. In hindsight, I think honest Swiss culture is only revealed in the Alps in the Winter, so we got close but never actually there. After the tour, we made our way back to the riverfront and had a few beers with a view. The Swiss are into cocktails as much as beer, but enough German beer makes it over the border to be satisfied.
In the morning we made another trip back to Basel Minster church, this time to see the basement and the roof. Underneath, they have partially preserved the ancient foundations of the modern church’s predecessor buildings going all the way back to the 10th century. Even better, there’s a fun little 20 minute narrated video that explains the history of the church with silhouette characters and is projected directly onto the 1000yr old wall.
On the roof, we climbed the surprisingly high church steeple and got excellent views of the city, thanks to it being a 95 degree sunny day. From the church, we took a bus out to the suburbs to visit a very strange, but oddly compelling place, called the Vitra Design Campus. The company Vitra is Swiss furniture company who’s designs somehow completely embody the Swiss – tasteful, expensive, but still somehow bland. But the Design Campus, a sprawling complex owned by Vitra, is a different story. It’s known for having multiple unique buildings designed by famous architects, which is of course why Jon hauled us out there in the first place.
Among the buildings, perhaps the Design Museum by Frank Gehry is the most renowned, but Jon’s favorite was (of course) the Fire Station by Zaha Hadid. Apparently, it was designed and built as a real, functioning fire station for the private use of Vitra company, but the Swiss government didn’t appreciate that and they disbanded it after just a few years – now it’s an oddly shaped event space instead of an even more oddly shaped fire station.
After all that, we somehow gathered up the energy for the most exciting activity of the day – floating down the Rhine river through the city! Unfortunately, we sealed our phones up in dry bags to float down the river with us, so I can only apologize for not having any pictures to share. It was a ton of fun and a great way to cool off (it was pushing 100 deg that day).
Can you believe all that was just 2 full days in Basel? Well there’s still more to do – now it’s off to Prague!
We had an afternoon flight, so we spent the morning writing postcards and shopping one last time for touristy crap in Switzerland before heading to the airport. Our flight was somewhat delayed, so we didn’t make it to until Prague proper until after dark. Right away, it was impossible not to see the stark contrast between bland Switzerland and hedonistic Prague.
Despite being a Wednesday night, we heard music blasting from every bar and walked past legions of drunken party goers on the way to our Airbnb. Naturally, we had to visit a 24hr combination liquor store and cannabis oil dispensary to get our key before going upstairs. We weren’t in the mood to party like the rest of Prague, however, and we called it a night early.
Lucky for us, our Airbnb was right next door to more than just discount priced CBD vape cartridges, and the next morning it was just a short walk to the famous Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is famous for the 30 beautiful Baroque statues marching down both sides of the span, as well as it’s perfect position on the Vltava river between old and new town Prague. To me though, the best part is that it looks like it was built using the most grand construction available to the 15th century and it hasn’t been updated since – of course, that is in fact the case. It’s just so gloriously old looking with it’s low stone arches and complete absence of modern materials.
Anyway, looking gloriously old is a theme that permeates all of Prague, and even the routine apartment buildings have a dignified air. On the other side of the river, we walked up the aptly named Castle Hill to visit Pražský hrad. The “castle” is really a huge, Frankenstein complex of multiple buildings that have been burned down, sacked, renovated, and rebuilt more times than anyone can count, but each maintains that historic look. Among the highlights, the ceiling of the Palace is sweet, the St. Vitus cathedral is a gothic monster, and the view from the top of St.Vitus is exceptional.
Also up on Castle Hill is the much smaller and reverent basilica of St. George, and a really cute reconstructed 15th century street called the Golden Lane. They had a number of restored homes from that era, complete with furniture and decorations, that look like they are straight from Lord of the Rings. I’m sure it’s embellished for the tourists, but it’s fun nonetheless and it all adds to that backwards-in-time feel.
In the evening, we set out to try some of that (in)famous Czech beer. Jon tried to take us to a specialty bar recommended by the guidebook named Klaster Monastery. But, thanks to some untranslatable signage in Czech and the inexplicable nature of the street layout in old town, we instead ended up at a historic beer bar in a converted wine cellar. Jokes aside, despite being in a wine cellar they had some of the best beer Jon and I have ever drank. Even the texture was good, creamy and crisp at the same time – truly remarkable. Anyway, more than a little buzzed, we had some tasty pub food for dinner and eventually made our way back to the Airbnb.
The next day, we finally got on that free walking tour I know you all were missing. Prague history seems to be more or less a story of Catholics vs. Protestants punctuated by a series of “defenestrations”. Apparently, throwing folks out of the castle windows is a popular form of Bohemian justice, and they used it judiciously on all kinds of religious and political leaders. The “Third Defenestration of Prague” was even the catalyst for the Thirty Years’ War, which we would later learn more about in Sweden since it somehow involved them too.
After the tour, we spent the rest of the day exploring the giant churches and historic buildings of old town. Nothing could stand up to St.Vitus that we saw the day before, but the Basilica of St. James does have the bonus of looking like Harry Potter castle on the outside and a humongous Baroque doll house on the inside. Further, across the square from St.James lies the old city hall building, which allows you to climb up the clock tower for some excellent views of the city.
It seems that watching the show the clock tower puts on every hour is also a pretty popular event, but we ended up on the clock tower itself when the clock struck 3pm, so we had a rather different show watching the crowd from above. We kind of missed it on purpose though – our tour guide described it as “the most overrated event in all of Europe”, and a great place for pickpockets since everyone is staring at the clock.
That night, we did our old person best to go out and enjoy the Prague night life, but in the end we didn’t last that long. We can tell you though that the “Beer Bikes”, which are a bizarre hybrid of group bicycling, public transport, and cheap beer, roll on long into the night.
That’s our high speed tour of Basel and Prague, we managed to pack a lot into just six days. But don’t let go of your butts yet – next stop Vienna!