Last week I became aware of the existence of the Basel Herbstmesse, which is basically a two-week fair celebrating fall (with some foreshadowings of the Basel Christmas market). For those of you who know how much I love both fall and Christmas, you will understand how I immediately began figuring out when I was going to visit this fair.
In keeping with my current travel philosophy of making friends and inviting myself to hang out with them where they are from, I started a conversation with a colleague from Basel (Greta) that ended in the organization of an trip to the Herbstmesse, guided by Greta.
We went to the Herbstmesse on Saturday evening, taking the hour train ride from Zürich to Basel in the late afternoon. I've been through Basel multiple times on my way to visit my friend Aurore in Strasbourg, but this was my first time actually going out into the city. We met up with a few of Greta's friends that were also from Basel and proceeded to wander around the (very crowded) fair. We started in the market area, which featured hundreds of booths. We enjoyed looking at the shops, which ranged from antique books to kitchen gadgets that cut vegetables in less time than it takes you to read this to hand-made pottery to organic cleaning supplies to hookahs to scarves. Of course, this being Switzerland, the prices did not feel very market-y, but more upscale store-y...
There were also myriad food options, from sweet shops selling every imaginable variety of gingerbreads and anise cookies to Mexican and Asian and Malaysian options to cheese tarts and fondue to mulled wine to corn on the cob to something called "Turkish honey" that resembled salt-water taffy in a block the size of old-school computer monitor. We had little bits of quite a few things, including the corn on the cob. (I do apologize for the dearth of photos. It was just getting dark as we arrived, and then the market was so crowded that I was much more focused on staying with my people than taking pictures.)
It was really fun to wander around Basel with people from Basel- I feel like I saw different things than I otherwise would have, and I also got lost so much less! (I also had help ordering when I needed it. I still suffer from intermittant stage fright when I need to speak German which is exacerbated in high-intensity situations such as a busy market, so it is nice to have people around to help me...) We wandered around the city, which was really buzzing. There were carnival-type rides set up in almost all of the major plazas in the city! We went to one plaza by the Basel Münster and took a ride on the huge Ferris wheel. It was really cool to hover over the city at night. We could see the rides all lit up in the other plazas around the city, as well as having a fantastic view of the Münster. I don't like heights so much, however, so I was a little nervous. Normally I'm not so bad, but I think the hanging in mid-air in the dark got to me a little bit.
Despite only seeing Basel at night, I have to say that I really like it. It is really cute and quite quaint, with a cosy feel. The architecture definitely has a different flair than Zürich, since it is right on the border with France and feels quite Alsatian. I love that I can experience so many different types of places within an easy traveling distance! We ended up the evening warming up in one of Greta's favorite bars in Basel before heading back to Zürich. It was a lovely evening being shown a true Basel experience by real Baseler-s!
In keeping with my current travel philosophy of making friends and inviting myself to hang out with them where they are from, I started a conversation with a colleague from Basel (Greta) that ended in the organization of an trip to the Herbstmesse, guided by Greta.
We went to the Herbstmesse on Saturday evening, taking the hour train ride from Zürich to Basel in the late afternoon. I've been through Basel multiple times on my way to visit my friend Aurore in Strasbourg, but this was my first time actually going out into the city. We met up with a few of Greta's friends that were also from Basel and proceeded to wander around the (very crowded) fair. We started in the market area, which featured hundreds of booths. We enjoyed looking at the shops, which ranged from antique books to kitchen gadgets that cut vegetables in less time than it takes you to read this to hand-made pottery to organic cleaning supplies to hookahs to scarves. Of course, this being Switzerland, the prices did not feel very market-y, but more upscale store-y...
There were also myriad food options, from sweet shops selling every imaginable variety of gingerbreads and anise cookies to Mexican and Asian and Malaysian options to cheese tarts and fondue to mulled wine to corn on the cob to something called "Turkish honey" that resembled salt-water taffy in a block the size of old-school computer monitor. We had little bits of quite a few things, including the corn on the cob. (I do apologize for the dearth of photos. It was just getting dark as we arrived, and then the market was so crowded that I was much more focused on staying with my people than taking pictures.)
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| From L to R, Rebekka, Fabian, Greta and I enjoying our corn. |
Despite only seeing Basel at night, I have to say that I really like it. It is really cute and quite quaint, with a cosy feel. The architecture definitely has a different flair than Zürich, since it is right on the border with France and feels quite Alsatian. I love that I can experience so many different types of places within an easy traveling distance! We ended up the evening warming up in one of Greta's favorite bars in Basel before heading back to Zürich. It was a lovely evening being shown a true Basel experience by real Baseler-s!
