Basel Gates & One Minute Movie Fest

We had a very eclectic weekend starting with Saturday. Basel used to be a walled city like many other cities in Europe. In order to control ingress and egress they had many gates that could be guarded and closed in case of attack. In 1859 the city decided to remove what was left of the wall and gates, but decided to leave a very small portion of the wall and 3 city gates: Spalentor, St. Alban-Tor and St. Johanns-Tor. Once a year the city opens these gates to the public so we decided to take advantage of their generous offer. Two of the gates house Fastnacht cliques where they can get together to socialize (both gates had eating areas, small kitchens and general purpose rooms). The largest, Spalentor, looked largely unused, but you were able to see how they raised and lowered the spiked gate made up of individual logs. Each gate has a clock and bells which mark the hour and quarter hours. Take a look at the pictures!

Afterwards we drove to Aarau to attend the One Minute movie festival. There were lots of weird, interesting and funny subjects. At the end of each 40 minutes we were asked to vote for our 3 favorites. You can check out previous year winners on the web site. Enjoy!