A rainy weekend in Basel

The weather forecast being absolutely diabolical, we decided to postpone the planned trip to the mountains (the real ones) for another weekend, which left us free on the Friday to go out and watch the England / Algeria match [yes, I wish we hadn't bothered!]. The atmosphere in Pickwicks last time out was good but a bit partisan and we are here to explore after all, so after some research, we decided to go to

Eoipso

Man what an interesting place! Oh, here's their website by the way. We got there, about a half hour before kick-off; it's not the easiest place to get to by tram but well worth the effort.


Sorry, I need to backtrack a little here; en route to Eoipso we called in at Mister Wong at the Bahnhof for grub. Claire had been to the one on Steinenvorstadt a couple of times before and really liked it and we had to change trams at the station so it seemed like a good plan. The great thing about Mister Wong is that they cook your food right there in front of you when you order it! It's like a cafeteria kind of a set-up where you grab a tray and your drink and your cutlery and then look at what's available and take your choice. Except that the pre-prepared stuff is all cheap and doesn't look very appetising and there's a menu where you can choose fresh stuff and it's GREAT! [and still very reasonable]. Claire went with a Thai green curry, which was very fragrant, very fresh-tasting and very effing hot! I just went with the fried chicken noodles, which I do believe I could happily live on for a year. And I tried the dunkel feldschlossen, which is a darker version and is quite nice. A bit tough to have a session on, I would imagine, but quite nice with my dinner.


Back to Eoipso. It's like this massive old barn or warehouse or something (there's still some kind of lifting apparatus that runs on tracks up in the rafters) that's been converted into a kind of arty restaurant slash bar, with lots and lots of TVs everywhere. Old TVs of the CRT variety; presumably when people throw them out to replace with LCDs, the Eoipso people are taking them into their bar. It's all open plan, the bar area has sofas, and some chairs and tables and very relaxed while the restaurant half of the building has candles and white linen and things. It really was a very very interesting place and if you're ever in Basel, it's well worth looking at. It's also the first time I'd tried Zeigelhof Bier, which was pretty pleasant too. We won't mention the footie...

Stepford Tourists

Actually, the really weird thing about Eoipso was that as we were arriving, a whole bunch of people with headphones on were leaving - we assumed that they were part of some kind of tour party of course and didn't think any more of it. But when we went inside, there were a whole bunch more of them. Just sitting there at various tables, some in groups and some by themselves, with drinks in front of them, not speaking just (presumably) listening to some audio guide. I joked about them being the Stepford Tourists. It was pretty weird, right. But it got weirder when suddenly, as if on some cue that only they could hear, they all rose, silently, leaving their drinks behind and heading en masse for the exit. Spooky! [Well obviously it was a cue only they could hear because they were wearing the headphones but let's not spoil the narrative!]

International Tourism

On Sunday, I went to France. Then to Germany, then back to Switzerland. Then Germany, Switzerland, France, Germany, France, Switzerland, France, Germany, Switzerland. Then France. And finally Switzerland. And then I had a little sit down because I was dizzy.


As you may or may not be aware, Basel is up in the North-west of Switzerland and as such, it has suburbs in both France and Germany. It also, naturellement, naturalische, has borders with both countries and where those borders meet is ... the middle of the Rhine. But very near to where they meet is the dreilandereck, which is translated into English as "Three Country Corner", but the French version is something like "the pylon of three lands", which is I think a nicer translation. It's a fairly pretty monument, a ten-minute walk from the end of the number 8 tram line (well signposted all the way), but there's not a lot else going on there - it's at the end of a wharf and there appears to be a restaurant there. I'll leave the creative among you to guess what it's called, but it wasn't open.


I think it's the sheer symbolism of a border with TWO OTHER COUNTRIES that makes it a special landmark. There can't be that many of them in world and there's some primal appeal that I certainly felt from visiting it. That is all. Hopefully, next post will be about the mountains!