Modern and old

I sleep all the way to my alarm at seven! It’s a pretty quiet room and we have air-conditioning, that makes a difference. It’s supposed to be a pretty hot day, so we dress coolly. We have a quick look at the car and then we set out on our morning architecture tour. The city published a pretty comprehensive leaflet with all the notable modern buildings in the town, each one indicated on a fold-out map in the back, available in Google maps as well. Since we’ll be operating without internet, we’ll go old school and navigate by map and street names.

Around nine, we get off the tram at the Dreirosenbrücke (bridge of three roses, it’s not immediately apparent where the roses are) and make our way to the start of the tour of Klein Basel. This area was extensively rebuilt and renovated after the industry left town, so it’s a charming mix of older, Swiss looking buildings and large modern architecture projects, all of it interspersed with lots of green and pedestrian areas. It takes us 14.000 steps and two and a half hours to finish the tour, tired but satisfied with the discoveries. We didn’t know most of the architects, going from their names they are mostly Swiss. Herzog & De Meuron is the most famous name we encounter, their headquarters are here in Basel and we’ll see more of their projects tomorrow.

We take the ferry across the Rhein near the minster church, it’s a small, wooden craft which is tethered to a steel cable strung high between the banks. The current here is really, really strong, so the boat does not use an engine to travel across, but rather is pulled across on the rope. It costs 2 CHF or 2,2 €, but a fun way to cross and a different viewpoint on the city. We have lunch near the minster and then make our way to our afternoon activity: the Kunstmuseum Basel.

We first visit the new building, mostly modern art, I admit it’s a bit too conceptual for me. Next is the old building, which can be reached by an underground walkway. At this point we’re quite tired from the morning’s activities, so we drag ourselves up the monumental staircases. The collection is varied, surprisingly large and has a lot of pieces by famous artists. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many pieces by f.e. Giacometti. Don’t think I had ever seen a painting of his and here there’s a room full of them.

I notice there’s quite a lot of art (modern and old) by women. I’m not sure if this is a sign of the times, or something particular to this museum, but to me the percentage seems quite a bit higher than other general art museums I’ve visited. They’re not in a separate collection, simply in between the other artists the time/theme/whatever.

We escape around four, have a Schorle and dessert in the museum courtyard and slowly make our way back to the tram, We stop to admire the courtyard of the city hall, hop on the tram near one of the Rhein bridges and are back at the hotel around five. A bit of peace and quiet, a relaxed outing for sushi, then a quiet evening in the hotel room.