I was a little bit worried about not having a World Cup Wallchart this year for the first time since 1982 but the good old Sunday Times had (a small) one in their 30th May edition, which we managed to buy on the ferry when we drove out here. So that's on the wall, I've got a plentiful supply of Feldschlossen in, and plenty of Merlot. But before I can sit down and start soaking up the festival of footie, I have some jobs to do today. One is the recycling which is very well organised out here - you can pretty much recycle everything; some gets picked up from the road, some I have to take about a minute's walk away and some gets done at the supermarket. And they'll even let you recycle plasticised cardboard of the kind you get on milk cartons!
Another is of course to write this post about last weekend's adventures.
Food
Before I tell you about this place, a little background - Claire and I went and did a tour of Turkey with Explore for our honeymoon last September [thanks again Dad and Louise!], visiting a whole lot of the western part of the country and learning some very interesting things. Not only was it historically, culturally and geographically educational but for a kebab fan like myself, it was a gastronomic delight - I pretty much had a different kind of kebab every single day. But there was one type of outstanding kebab which I had to have more than once, which is the Adana kebab. Kind of like a kofte which you'd get in a kebabby in the UK, but spicier and delicious. I had planned on telling my local, The Kebabery in Stortford, about them and trying to get them added to their menu, but I bottled it. Anyhoo, Basel it seems has a fairly sizeable Turkish community (judging by the number of kebab shops at any rate) and a number of pretty nice restaurants. And clearly the Swiss are well educated on Turkish cuisine because not only do most restaurants (including the take-aways) serve Adana kebabs but they also serve Pide, Claire's favourite, which is basically Turkish pizza!
Background complete, let me tell you about Kelim restaurant [warning this website plays music at you!] It's very close to Mr Pickwicks for one thing, up some stairs in a somewhat dodgy-looking area. I say dodgy-looking mainly because of the graffiti. For such a well-maintained and regulated country with a strong rule of law, Switzerland seems to be pretty relaxed about graffiti, some of which is actually very impressive stuff. It's got a little courtyard area and a few tables inside, decorated with, funnily enough, a few Kelim rugs on the walls. The food was lovely. Not sure about the prices because I haven't got too much experience of Swiss restaurants to compare with, but it seemed very reasonable. They served Efes beer for that authentic taste of Turkey, too. Staff were very friendly, and extremely patient with my pidjin-German and the proprietor (? manager ?) was delighted when we thanked him in Turkish, which also proved the place's authenticity. We shared the lentil kofte and some hummus for a starter (both delicious and served not with pitta but with this lovely soft seeded bread that we had got used to in Turkey). We both went for an Adana (yes I was sure Claire was going to go for a pide too) but whilst Claire went for the classic adana, I had to check out the Adana Iskender. Now, I'm assuming that that's Alexander, and I know I had at least one Iskender kebab in Turkey and the theme seems to be that it gets served with like a sour-cream and a tomato sauce - nice and messy and delicious. This one was served on a bed of large croutons. And yes it was delicious. I know that we'll be going back there.
[Note to self: investigate what the association between Iskender and cream and tomato is]
Exercise
Basel has a number of outdoor swimming pools [actually Switzerland does], so we decided that, if it was a nice day on the Saturday, we'd exercise off some of those kebab calories by cycling to our nearest pool, the Gartenbad Bachgraben, and of course swimming off some more once there. We arranged to meet one of Claire's colleagues and her husband once there. Clearly, the whole of Basel had had the same idea as it was rammed! But what a fantastic place it was - 5CHF to get in (and we obviously only spent a few hours there - you could easily take a picnic and spend the whole day) - a massive area with 3 pools - one regular pool with lanes and a (seperate) diving area with two springboards, one odd-shaped and fairly shallow pool with a big wide waterslide and one little kiddies paddling pool. My only previous experience of outdoor pools was the one at Bath Road in Luton whilst I was growing up (not even sure if it's still there anymore), which was fairly small and all concrete. This place was mostly grass, apart from directly around the pools, with trees for shade, several ice cream vendors, a big food court terrace, beach volleyball court. Just fantastic!
There were really only two downsides - firstly, I managed to spring punctures in both wheels on the way there so had to walk back (and the repairs are another thing on today's List) and secondly the water was absolutely effing FREEZING! Or perhaps I'm just a bit of a big girl's blouse - I should've gone and swam a few lengths of the big pool and I'm sure I would've been fine.
Right, next post will be all about how Basel is celebrating the World Cup. I'm going to do a scouting mission this afternoon for the opening match - checking out Mr Pickwick's and seeing if they're going to put up big TVs in Barfusserplatz etc. Not having either a South Africa shirt or a Mexico shirt, I'm not sure whether to wear a Cameroon top to show my support for Africa or Peru to show my support for Latin America. Perhaps I'll just wear my "Lennon: Give Pace a Chance" to subtly hint at both my club and country affiliation.
Also we're planning on taking a picnic and using our travel permits to go up into the mountains (that's Welsh for "hills") near Basel for a little walking and exploring. That post might have some photos!
Chin chin and COME ON ENGLAND!
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