Basel was one of the cities where we were docked in the same city we were visiting and it was the only city that we also flew into. We were docked in the port that accommodated passengers, and took a fifteen minute (tour) bus ride into the old core of the city where we had a guided walking tour and "free time." These two points are marked on the map below, if interested, I encourage you to explore the map for each post and to familiarize yourself with google maps if you are not already. It's an uncanny, but fun and unique way of exploring and imagining places.
View Basel in a larger map
Our view from the boat could be a beautiful church, nature, or a quiet residential neighborhood
Or an industrial port, power power plant, factories, and (sub)urban decay
In this case, while docked in Basel Switzerland, we had a bit of both, but the sunset helped mask the differences between chimneys and church towers
The old town is marked by the pink-red Cathedral, which, as every tour guide from Basel to around Cologne pointed out, is a unique regional feature of the sandstone of the area, not realizing that their regional neighbors' local guides had already pointed this out for each of the thousands of pink sandstone buildings we had seen in the region.
The laughing figures pictured below were meant to scare sinners who were having too much fun by depicting light-hearted, sensual, and carefree figures who were covered with frogs, serpents, spiders, and demons on their back. The church-goers (everyone) would see it on their way out of the church and feel guilty. They're pretty funny statues and also made out of pink sandstone.
For each walking tour we were assigned a group and number, which was our company on the bus ride (if the distance to the tour site was too far to comfortably walk or in anther city) and would be displayed on a sign, we were number 4. The cruise company has its own headsets that (outdatedly) plug into a radio receiver that picks up the speech of the guide who has a Britney Spear's style microphone that, since they are not doing as much physical activity like dancing, choose to hold in their hands.
One of my favorite moments of the trip occurred just before this picture was taken, as 30 minutes into the audio tour, after they explained how the headsets synch and that if one is not physically standing near enough to their tour guide they may be hearing one of the other tours, a cruiser said, "I think I'm hearing another guide-lady." How it had taken her that long to figure out she was hearing the wrong person the entire time shows how oblivious she was to her surroundings. She was an old woman with an intense New York accent and inability to perceive how loudly she was talking, and since she often had either rude or stupid comments or questions this event taking place early on in the trip cemented our avoidance of her as well as hinted at our inability to avoid her, since she was in our group and the boat was only so big. (Woman not pictured below)
The old city of Basel is covered in holes where excavations, publicly and privately sponsored, have uncovering both medieval and roman ruins. In the picture below the sight had been sealed off to preserve it and to allow people to see into the past of the city, with signs that explained what the viewer was seeing. In this case there is a pile of bones and I believe I remember that the sign is saying is, "Medieval Childs Grave" in German.
For more information on the city of Basel the wikipedia entry provides a concise and visually stimulating overview:
Basel
