Europe at Christmas 2018 {Day Six~Basel, Switzerland}

On December 21st, I said "Au revior" to France and "Hallo" to Switzerland. It is only a short, 50 minute, train ride from Colmar to Basel, Switzerland. I arrived and had decided to just walk to the hotel as it was only about a 15 minute walk. Unfortunately it started to rain a few minute into that walk, so it wasn't pleasant. The rain continued to be an issue all day. It was raining hard enough that my camera was getting pretty wet, and as a result, I have VERY FEW photos of Basel.

First up, I had some trouble locating my hotel. I was certain I had found it because I saw the hotel sign on the street side of the building, but locating the entrance was a little difficult. Mainly the problem was that I didn't realize my hotel was actually in the middle of one of the Christmas markets! I was able to check in right away, and then I headed out to find some lunch. The lunch spot also proved very difficult to find, but I did find my way to the town hall. I snapped a couple of pics and then went to find my lunch place.

Lunch was at 1777 Kaffee. I had read about their build your own baguette sandwiches and that they were highly recommended due to their house made baguettes. I got ham and swiss (bc when in Switzerland). I also had a tea and some fries with this, but this made me realize Switzerland is super expensive. Meet my $40 lunch...

After lunch, I headed back over to the Marketplatz, which was also having one of their markets. It was interesting to browse and see all the flowers, cheese, meats, veggies & fruits that the vendors had to sell to local residents of Basel.

The Rhine and some views of Basel

Basel Münster

Around the church there was a really nice Christmas Market. Basel really has nice Christmas markets in general.

I spent a lot of time looking around all the markets, and a whole lot of time shopping for Swiss Chocolate. After dark I did take a couple of pics of some of the lights because it finally stopped raining for a few minutes.

Dinner was a Fondue Dog, which is a log of bread with a hole in the middle and fondue poured in. Hey! What else are you going to eat in Switzerland but ALL of the cheese and chocolate?!?

I selected Motel One Basel for my hotel. I knew it looked close to the markets, but literally it was in the middle of a market. Markets aside, I think it was in a very good location, and turned out to be right across the street from a tram stop (which i took back to the train station the next morning). I believe that all hotels in Basel give their guests free tram passes, which is pretty cool.

There are Motel Ones all over Europe. The name made me think of Motel 6 so I was hesitant, but it was really nice and reasonably priced.