Floating down the Rhine in Basel

My latest European road trip, last month, began just across the channel in Lille, in cool 6 am darkness. Somewhere around Reims or Épernay there was a pit-stop at a roadside L'Arche for coffee and a croissant, before driving on through French farmland, and by 11.30 we were well into the Vosges and Alsace. Things were getting German. 

At lunchtime we were in Basel, Switzerland, looking down on the Rhine.

It was a hot Saturday, 29 degrees, and in the Rhine were not only pleasure boats but also loads of swimmers - or floaters, rather.
The Rhine runs through the centre of the city in a strong, fast current. All through summer, the thing to do in Basel is jump in the river upstream and let the current sweep you along.

There's nothing to do but float, enjoying the sun on your face, for miles ... with a specially designed waterproof bag that sells everywhere here for keeping your clothes and belongings dry, doubling as a flotation pillow to hang onto. And when you hop out, there's a bus to take you back to where you started! Swiss efficiency.

Before I dipped a toe in I was going to need to know how clean the water was! Pretty damn clean, it turns out. Billions of euros have been spent on cleaning up the Rhine and keeping it that way. I'm in awe of how Switzerland and Germany manage to be industrial and manufacturing power-houses of Europe (Basel is the hub of the pharmaceutical industry) and at the same time the leaders in green-ness and preservation of the environment.

Les Trois Rois, one of Basel's grand old hotels, is the perfect place to drop in for a drink or lunch on the terrace with a view

This is a distinctly people-friendly city, I discover, as we walk across one of the bridges closed to all traffic except for the trams which silently criss-cross the city. 

Public transport is not only efficient and 'green', but also cheerful ...

In the Marktplatz and Theaterplatz everyone was enjoying the last of summer days
and street food ...

This may be one of the most expensive countries in Europe, but hugs were free from this friendly guy!

At the Basel Münster there were games of boules under the trees

and at the extraordinary Tinguely fountain where mechanical sculptures play with water, children were dipping their feet and dodging the spray.

Besides pharmaceutical company headquarters, Basel is most famous for being a major art centre of the world. There are more art galleries and museums concentrated here than in most far bigger world cities 

Kunstmuseum Basel

I was impressed by how well older buildings blend seamlessly with modern ones. Town planning here (as in Germany) and protection of the natural environment are fantastically well done.

Did I mention that Basel is spotlessly clean? I watched street sweepers cruising the streets at the crack of dawn, and people carefully hand-sweeping the pavements in front of shops and hotels for the odd cigarette butt or stray leaf. 

I was sorry to leave Basel on Sunday morning, after a last linger on the bank of the Rhine where early swimmers were already doing their floating thing, and cyclists were freewheeling alongside the river. 

What a civilised, liveable city. All I need is a Swiss bank account and I'm moving right over there.

Basel, Switzerland, September 2016

Luzern

Driving from Bolzano and Merano in the South Tyrol into Switzerland, the Flüela Pass takes you through the Swiss Alps.  
The summit (it's one of the highest in Switzerland), minus winter snow, looks barren and rocky

but soon opens out into something altogether more picture-postcard-Alps

Descending via Davos (a surprisingly unlovely town) it's late afternoon by the time you reach Luzern, where all is peace and serenity on the shores of the lake.

There's time to walk over to the KKL - Kultur- und Kongresszentrum - in Europa Platz, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel (responsible for the fabulous Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris - I posted about it here) 

where performers in a World Band event are chilling in front of sunset views across the river

before heading to the old town across the wooden Kapellbrücke, Europe's oldest (1333) covered bridge (arguably, since much of it was rebuilt after burning down not long ago when someone tossed a lighted cigarette at it)

for a drink on the waterside while the light fades.

Luzern, Switzerland, 2014

Road trip

When the journey is at least as much the point as the destination, when you can see three countries in one day, isn't a road trip just the best?

France: misty dawn at 6.30 am on the road from Épernay, leaving the capitale du champagne's vineyards behind and heading north-east into Alsace-Lorraine.

Via Nancy and Metz, the road climbs into the mountains of the Vosges, before we turn south before Strasbourg, through historically German territory, hugging the German border.

Crossing the border at Basel, we're in Switzerland and suddenly it's a different territory altogether: neat A-framed houses and the cleanest cows you'll ever see, dotted against the greenest meadows. They seem to polish the grass here and line up the trees in tidy rows. Ordnung muss sein.

Spotless, efficient motorways bisect picture postcard scenes of mountains and lakes.

No winding detours here - wide, well-lit tunnels cut straight under the mountains. (A road tax demanded at the Swiss border ensures you pay for the privilege of using, and maintaining, these beautiful roads). 
The Gotthard tunnel is 17 kms long, making it the third longest in the world. Boring directly through the Gotthard mountain, it gets you from central Switzerland to within a whisker of Milan in 15 minutes.

And before you know it, you're in Italy ...

... and marvelling again at how striking the difference can be from the moment of crossing a border - from the gently chaotic infrastructure to the faded romantic houses clustered haphazardly on winding roads.

Late afternoon there's a haze on Lake Como and the day's driving is over.

Time for a campari maybe, with a view over the lake 

Resident kitten, lake views and Italian design at Villa Nina B&B, Carate Urio, Lago di Como

Ristorante La Baia, Moltrasio, Lago di Como