Arrived in Basel Switzerland

Well, our journey across the ocean went smoothly.  Whew!  More importantly all of our luggage arrived too!  VBT -our biking tour group had a representative waiting for us--some confusion--he was on the French side of the airport exit and we were on the Swiss side--but we did connect and after a short ride we settled in to our hotel Der Teufelhof Basel for the next three nights.  Modest, clean, and a perfect location for exploring Basel and the surrounding cities.  Below is the view from our hotel room window, located in the back of the hotel. Very charming window boxes.

Our first evening in Basel was an exploration of the city near our hotel, in search of dinner. We stumbled upon a lively scene down on the banks of the Rhine River, where all the movers and shakers were gathered to revel in the beautiful weather, and enjoy the cooling, fast moving waters of the powerful river.  The Rhine is one of those rare rivers that flows South to North.  Swimmers must always be on alert for monstrous barges that plow through the waters with reckless abandon!

Here we are with our toes dipped in the Rhine, along with our friends Brenda and Don Waardenburg:

Friday we decided to be adventurous and figure out how to use the Basel Tram system to get us to the Bahnhof (train station), with the goal of taking a train one hour away to Lucerne. This is a gem of a city along Lake Lucerne with the Alps in the backdrop.  What a day! We almost missed the tram-didn't know we had to press a button on the outside to get in and as it pulled away from where we were standing with our faces dumbfounded, Don Waardenburg more or less waved his arms and the conductor halted the tram.  The other riders quickly provided us with a lesson, riding the Tram 101! 

After a beautiful train ride through the countryside (just 20 miles from the Wirt ancestral homelands) we arrived in the bustling city of Lucerne, and quickly booked our excursion to the top of Mount Pilatus, a snow capped mountain with incredible views of the Alps and low lake country.  The trip to the top of the mountain was via a cog train (steepest in the World), and the return to Lucerne was by way of a 30 minute gondola ride- all of which was spectacular!