Basel (Switzerland)

The eye-catching Rathaus (town hall) in Marktplatz, central Basel 

Overlooking the Rhine River

Passenger ferry across the Rhine - the ferry is attached to a cable and the river current propels the boat across the water. The girls reckon this would be one of the most relaxing jobs around and well-suited to Grandpa Peter. The very chilled, barefooted gentleman operating the ferry whistled all the way through our journey. Reckon his blood pressure would have been pretty good

 

The Tinguely fountain, featuring machine sculptures

 

Our young hostesses, from back - Zara (born a day after Edie, in the same hospital in Sydney); twins Zoe and Sofia; Emma (with Della)

Swiss building regulations dictate that all residential buildings built after 1978 must contain a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12 megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres. Check out the reinforced steel door in our friends' house!

 

Having said auf wiedersehen to our German friends, we took a couple of trains to more friends in Basel, Switzerland. Thanks to our friend Mathias we made the trip without mishap, despite our original train bookings going out the window due to a train strike. The most exciting thing that happened onto the trip was Edie losing a tooth ...

It was great to see our friends Nadia and Jonathan and their four girls Zara, Zoe, Sofia and Emma. We first met N and J through mutual friends when we were all living in London in the early 2000s, and returned to Australia roughly around the same time. Our eldest girls were born a day apart at the same hospitals in Sydney. They are spending a couple of years in Basel for J's work.

Basel is a beautiful city with a wonderfully efficient public tram system. We spent a lovely day wandering around the city and met our friend Melanie for lunch - Melanie had lived with friends in Adelaide while studying there a couple of years ago, and had visited us in Tas. Of course, we also indulged in some Swiss chocolate and delicious Basel Laeckerli (gingerbread) during our stay.

The six young girls got along like a house on fire and a highlight of our time there for our girls was spending a couple of hours at their friends' international school.