Three Countries Corner

2010-08-29

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Basel for the day and met up with some IAESTE buddies, and we explored the city.

First up was the Rathaus, which was a beautiful building with lots of murals and statues.

Next up, we went to the Basel Münster, where there was a church organ performance. We only got to hear the last song but it sounded really good. The church was very nice, although not as nice as the one in Bern. One thing that it did have though was a basement with all these tombs of past bishops. And upstairs they had like a museum thing (where you couldn't take photos) with lots of old books, bibles, scrolls and stuff on display under glass cases. It was really cool to see books so old, most were from like the 1400's so hand-written and in Latin. Also they had crazy artwork with like gold foil and stuff. Incredible cool for books that I couldn't read.

We paid 4sFr to climb the tower, and there was a very nice view from the top. I hit my head several times though because people in the past must have been very short and all the doorways were tiny. There was a bell that we waited for 15min or so for it to ring, then realised it wasn't in use and we waited and had waited for nothing.

Then to the supermarket to buy some lunch, then back to Anthony's house to eat it. After some food, we went to France and Germany! There is a monument called Three Countries Corner where the three borders meet. Besides walking across the border, didn't really go into France, but we headed to Germany to grab some beer and meat for a BBQ that night. Prices in Germany are much cheaper than Switzerland, even if it is only like 1km away.

After shopping and some Czech beers, we returned to Switzerland and set up Anthony's BBQ by the River Rhein. An amazingly tasty BBQ ensued, and the meal tasted fantastic. The beer we brought back from Germany was a keg of Wheat Beer, which I thought I had tried before but apparently not because the taste was so different to any beer I'd had before. It was incredibly sweet and not at all what I expect beer to taste like.

After the BBQ had to make a quick dash back to the train station to catch the last train back home.