Day 14 : Basel (5)

Leaving the Rathaus we walked to the Puppenhausmuseum or Doll’s House Museum.  This museum has a collection of more than 6 000 dolls and doll houses over 4 floors.  We paid the entrance of CHF 7 each then took the lift to the 4th floor.

The 4th floor has the world’s largest collection of more than 2500 teddy bears.  The oldest beat is from 1904.  On another floor there are dollhouses from the 18th and 19th century.  There are miniature schools, kitchens, pharmacies and different kinds of shops.  Each dollhouse has a lot of detail.  This was really impressive.  After spending a lot of time at the dollhouses we went quickly through the rest of the museum. 

We were talking in Afrikaans while walking in the museum when a woman stopped us and asked if we are from South Africa.  Her 8-year old daughter recognized the language.  The woman was from South Africa but live in Basel (for 20 years).  It was nice to talk some Afrikaans.   After talking for a while we went to the museum shop. The shop is very expensive (Like a poscard for CHF2.50) and small (difficult to walk in if there is other poeple inside already).


 

We started to walk back to the train station.  We passed this interesting fountain and walked pass the Elisabethian Church.  It started to rain again and we did not go inside.


















Close to the station we stopped at the “Switzerland Succoring Strasbourg” statue from 1889 by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.  This statue was a gift from Strasbourg to Basel for their help in the Franco-Purussian War.


We walked to the station and at 16:34 our train back to Bern departed.  We bought some food at the Bern station and arrived home at about 18:00.  We spend the rest of the night at the apartment.  We started to sort and pack our luggage because our time in Switzerland was running out.
Basel Station
Location: Basel, Switzerland

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eyewitness Travel Guides – A Book Review

Image
  Last month I wrote a book review and I enjoyed it.   Today I want to share some more of my favourite travel books.   DK Eyewitness Travel Guides I bought my first travel guide in 2008. I was planning a trip with my friend Lelanie to London and Europe.   While planning the trip I bought the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Europe and I paid R 282.00 for it.   Except for my university textbooks, this was the most expensive book I have ever bought for myself.    We were doing a Contiki Tour and visited 7 countries.   I studied the information in guide the about the cities we would visit.    I made lists of places I want to see and then looked for more information about them.   In the end I did not take the guide with me (the 800 pages was just to heavy to carry along) but packed all my lists to use.  At Departures at Cape Town Airport in 2008 My second guide was for the same trip.   The Eyewitness Trave...
Read more

Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê

Image
   Weather vane on the VGK Church in Carnarvon    This photo made me think of a song we used to sing as kids.    It is a traditional Afrikaans song about the rooster on top of the church. The words of the song and its translation: Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower Dis die haan, Dis die haan It’s the rooster, It’s the rooster Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower More about all the churches and other buildings we saw in Carnarvon in the next post.
Read more

Dutch Reformed Mother Church, George

Image
One of my favourite sights in George is the white Dutch Reformed Mother Church with the beautiful Outeniqua Mountain as background.   I have many memories of visiting this church: On a history class trip when I was about 10, for a art class when I was about 13, for my cousins wedding in 2004, for her baby’s christening a few years later and many other times.   But most of all I like seeing this church every time we drive through town.   The cornerstone for the church was laid on 14 April 1832.   Slaves were used for some of the building work like the digging of the six-foot deep by five-foot wide foundations.   Due to financial problems it took 12 years to complete the church and it was consecrated in 9 October 1842.  The church is a National Heritage Site. On 13 September 1905 disaster struck when the church tower collapsed.   The wood rotted from water damage and lead to the walls weakening.   After a lot of rain for two days t...
Read more