I've been getting bored of the World Cup! [no, I never thought I'd say either! Although, yesterday things picked up a little. Do I feel sorry for France? Not one jot] So I decided to head off on a mini adventure all by myself.
Except, we've got this dodgy unseasonable weather just now. Apparently, we're right in the centre of this massive storm system that's causing such chaos throughout Europe [and the part of France that's had these terrible flash floods does get a lot of my sympathies]. So the weather is changeable to say the least - one moment beautiful blue skies, the next, lots of precipitation.
Am I waffling? The point is, I was thinking about going for a stroll in the hills outside Basel, but didn't really fancy it if the weather was inclement. So I hit upon a cunning plan: head out to Dornach on the tram (I love the trams!); if nothing else it would be interesting to see where that line goes. If the weather looked semi-decent, go for a walk otherwise, head back into the City and do a little city walk from a booklet we happen to have here at the flat (there's one that takes in both banks of the Rhine and the clever ferry that I promised to tell you about)
At the end of Tram Line 10, Dornach, there's a little station and a lot of wanderwegs. So I decided to head for one of those - there's one that goes back into Basel at St Jakob, which happens to be where FC Basel's stadium is located, so I thought that sounded good. And it was - the wanderweg goes alongside the River Birs (a tributary of the Rhine) so there were plenty of trees to give me a bit of cover in case the threatened rain did happen to arrive [it didn't]. There's a big nature reserve along a lot of the way and lots a dogwalkers, joggers, cyclists and indeed the odd wanderer [none more odd than yours truly of course!] The 70% or so humidity wasn't great for my tee-shirt though. The posted time for the walk was an hour and three-quarters, so of course I saw that a challenge, which also wasn't good for my tee-shirt, and I made it to St Jakob in an hour and fifteen minutes.
The picture at the top of the post was from about halfway along the walk, where there seemed to be a bit of a widening of the river and a smallish quarry. To be honest, there were nicer spots along the walk but it was too tricky to get a decent picture of them.
I was a bit tired (and hot and bothered) by the time I got to St Jakob, so I didn't have a big look around the stadium, but it does appear to be very impressive and I'm looking forward to watching a couple of games there once the new season starts [I have a little fantasy that Spurs are either going to play a pre-season friendly against FCB, or get drawn against them in the Champions League]. There's also a massive shopping centre there and all sorts of things. Interesting historical fact about the Birs and St Jakob.
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