Day 3 29/9/08 - Switzerland

London -> Basel

Highlight

• A relatively late start to another beautiful day, although it was colder and mistier today.
• Visited the Markplatz for the morning market – which was small and wasn’t really happening. It’s good if you want to do some basic shopping, but there was nothing on offer in terms of choice.
• Visited the Town Hall which was quite magnificent.
• Started on the green walk. Highlights were going to the peaceful and more suburban St Alban, crossing the Rhine on the current powered boat, and enjoying the scenery along the side of the Rhine.
• Stopped off for some shopping for the Basler Läckerli honey biscuit. We got a sample of it at the official store, and it was really yum, but we decided to check out the prices at the supermarket before we committed. We found a 1.5kg bag on sale for 11 CHF, which was cheaper than buying the 500g bag. There was no way I was going to buy the small bag, so we ended up with so much biscuit we didn’t bother trying to buy anything else.
• Had a very indulgent lunch at Les Quatres Saisons. We were the only ones there besides an old couple. The food was wonderful and they were very generous with the servings, so much so that I was so full I couldn’t even fit in dessert. The waiter was funny too, but I don’t think she meant to be.
• We emerged back into what had turned into a warm afternoon 2.5 hrs later. We waddled slowly through the orange walk, the highlight of which was seeing the cactus in the very small Botanical gardens and the cool Spenditor (gate). And this time we got to go inside The Cathedral afterall. It was very nice, but of course I have seen better.
• The gray walk already covered a lot of ground from the previous walks, but takes the narrow routes and stairs. It was not altogether unpleasant, and it was interesting seeing the parts at different parts of day, bursting with activities, instead of the dead town of the weekend. We couldn’t resist stopping by Gigen confisurie as we saw lots of people going in there. We picked out 3 different pastries item – palmier (comparable to the best from France), marzipan slice (yum), raisin and nut log (very Asian in feel and yum)
• The walks over, we spent the last hour or so wondering around some shops. It was quite interesting as there are some unique shops around, and not (much of) the Euro high street store you find in every city. We weren’t planning on buying anything else as our bags were loaded full, but ended up in Manor department store where they had a watch sale, so Slokky picked himself a Casio Baby-G for 50 CHF (I know it’s not even Swiss!) and I got myself a black diamante Reis for 89 CHF.
• We needed to use up our francs, so ended up getting cheese and chocolate from Coop before heading off to airport.
• A very smooth ride home, no delays and no incidence.

Food

• taste test bread
• Läckerli biscuits
• Les Quatres Saisons:
  • olive puff pastry, tomato puff pastry
  • bread assortment
  • venison with vegetable terrine
  • langoustine with asparagus
  • apple, foie gras terrine
  • Bouillabaisse with toast and langoustins
  • saffron mussel soup with scallop
  • lamb with carrot and mashed potato
  • veal with parsnip mash and brussel sprout
  • cheese with grapes and walnut and fruit bread: crème fraise, maulbier, Gorgonzola, Gruyere, camembert
  • 3 desserts: raspberry and fig compote, chocolate crème brulee, passionfruit, mango and raspberry sorbet
  • tea and espresso with petit fours
  • pistachio macaroon, raspberry lemon tart, tuile, milk and dark orange peel, Läckerli biscuit, chocolate with nuts, alcoholic chocolate
• glace chestnut
• palmier
• chocolate spice cake slice