Basel Cathedral

After our walk through town on November 19, we ended up back in front of the Basel Cathedral, or Munster as they say in German (with an umlaut on the u that I can't figure out how to get my keyboard to do).

This first photo is actually from 3 days prior, when we walked around the outside on a sunny day.  We liked this carving on the outside of the cathedral, which is right in front of where the stairs to the tower start.  It looks like longer ago there was a door or window behind it:

This is an outdoor corridor with memorial plaques, around a courtyard, attached to the southern side of the cathedral.

The outside of the cathedral from the northwest, with the very authentic cube vans that photobombed pretty much every historical landmark we visited on the trip.  We climbed the tower that is closest (we could have done both, as the first set of stairs leads to an outdoor balcony that connects them, but we figured one was enough.)  At this cathedral, you can climb multiple levels, all the way to the lacy spire at the top ... and we did!

Some pics of the interior of the church:

After you pay your fee to climb the tower, the guy at the desk buzzes you through a locked door.  The stairs are wide at first, and more modern.  This was where it started to get old and narrower, this wooden staircase leads up to the bell and the first balcony:

We stepped out onto the balcony.  It is skinny!  Just enough space to kind of shuffle sideways along the outside of the tower.  It wraps around to the back around both towers:

Views from the first balcony:

Unbeknown to us at the time, those are passengers from our cruise ship coming through in a herd on a guided tour that we didn't know about.  I remember saying to Ed when we looked down, "whew, we just missed being overrun by a tour group!"  On this trip however, we usually were in the herd, but today we were accidentally still on our own.  I'm glad we were though, as otherwise we wouldn't have been able to climb the tower.

View to the southeast.  That is the courtyard with the covered corridors that ring it as seen in a previous photo:

The Munsterplatz:

This is the roof of the cathedral, isn't it beautiful?

That is a Christmas Market in the lower left of the next photo, it's not open yet.  Most of the markets in the towns we visited had had the stalls set up, but weren't open yet.

At the back of each tower, we found an unlocked door that allowed us to climb up higher in the tower.  We randomly went into the north tower door.  The stairs at first were very dark, so dark that once the door closed behind us I told Ed we couldn't do it, as I couldn't see a thing.  After a minute though my eyes adjusted, and we could just barely make out a dim light above us to climb towards.  The stairs were extremely narrow, I don't think it would be possible to pass anyone going the other way, but luckily on this Monday, we had the tower to ourselves.

There are two sets of spiral stairs, and the top set is more open.  Climbing this lacy spire was scary!  It was both open and claustrophobic at the same time, it is very narrow.  Some of the windows have had a bar added halfway up, so that you don't fall out as you climb, you can see that in the lower left of the photo:

Views from the top level (there were 3, but I'm not posting any from the middle one):

This is looking over at the south tower.  That one has a bell (not the bell we passed before), and we saw the bell ringer doing his job while we were up there.  I'm not sure if we could have gone to the top of that tower since it had a bell, so it's good we chose the north one.   On the photo below you can see the second balcony with the doors that access the staircases:

This is the outer balcony on the top level.  Skinny and scary!  But so fun.

Looking down an opening in the middle of the tower to the second level:

Looking up into the spire:

The outside of the spire:

Looking down again at the second level of the tower:

There were many gargoyles, here are four for you:

There was some old graffiti on the walls at the top of the tower.  The one below has an illegible name but is dated 1745, with an update of 1845 below, maybe someone with the same name?

Heading back down the middle staircase.  This one is fully enclosed by stone and very dark, no lights.  Going down I held the upper door open to give light while Ed descended, and then he held open the bottom door for me.  This shows you how narrow and cramped it is - if Ed didn't duck, he'd hit his head, but there is not really any room to crouch down and duck, either.   We made it though!

One last view from the top of the tower, looking south on the Rhine, with the cathedral courtyard below us:

Next up, the Black Forest!

Boarding the ship, and a walk around Basel

Tuesday, November 19, we boarded our ship, the Viking Sigyn, docked in Basel, Switzerland.

These long ships are long ... when standing on shore beside it, it took two photos to capture most of it:

After having lunch on the ship, we headed out for a walk around Basel.  There was actually a guided tour of Basel from the ship that afternoon, but we didn't know about it, but our own walk was pretty nice!

Here is our ship, as we crossed a bridge over to the eastern side of the river:

Looking north on the Rhine from the bridge, the Sigyn is on the left:

Houses along the eastern bank of the river:

Looking at the west bank of the river:

At the bridge where we crossed back over to the western bank, there was a park with this strange sculpture:

Next 3 were taken from the bridge.  The cathedral towers are visible in the first:

Looking south on the Rhine from the bridge:

Construction site on the eastern bank, not sure what they are building but that's a lot of cranes:

We next visited what remains on the southern end of the old town of the old wall of the city:

This is the inner side of the wall:

This is the outer side:

This is a canal that in the old days powered a paper mill:

An old church near the paper mill:

Grave stones in the yard of the church:

Streets as we started heading back towards the centre of town:

Basel has lots of old fountains in the many town squares:

Coming up next, we climb the tower at the Munster (cathedral).