French Wallpaper Museum

Since the first time we passed the sign, Robert has been begging me to go to the Wallpaper Museum. Well, today was the day - cold and cloudy - THIS was the perfect opportunity. Everything you ever wanted to know about wallpaper (in French, no less) is contained in these 4 walls. The paper, the printing machines, the designs, the scenes - it was FASCINATING and I was barely able to drag Robert away. It's no wonder - the history of wallpaper is compelling to many and there is even a wallpaper history society! See our pictures here.

Basler Stadtlauf (City Run)

To kick off the holiday season, Basel holds a charity run. Young and old alike participate in this 5.5k event which takes place in the evening. Each gender is broken up by age group and start at 1/2 hour intervals; fans along the route cheer, ring cowbells and shout encouragement to the participants. Near the starting line a stage is set up and every hour a 'warm-up' session takes place with trainers to lively music. Robert and I both ran this year - after the race we donned our medals and drank a Gatorade toast to a job well done! See our Basel events here.

Basel Christmas Tree Lighting

On Tuesday, Basel's Christmas lights were switched on. The festive season has begun! Throughout Basel's streets and squares, some 100 Christmas trees were illuminated at the same time. The Brass Ensemble of the Boy's Choir together with an additional choir from Theater Basel provided musical accompaniment to the event, staged at Market Square. We enjoyed the evening with some of our work colleagues and finished it off with dinner at a Spanish restaurant on the Rhine river. Nothing says Christmas like tapas in Switzerland! See pictures from Basel here.

Foundation Beyeler

A quick trip to our favorite museum, Foundation Beyeler. Located on the edge of Basel, it's just ten minutes away in the car. The museum is currently featuring a "Forests of the World" exhibit with great pictures from photographers like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Ernst Haas, Frans Lanting, and numerous others. We were shocked to see that some of Robert's best pictures weren't featured. Unbelievable. Anyway, the building was designed by Nancy's favorite architect, Renzo Piano, and anytime we have an excuse to go there, we will. See pictures from Basel here.

FCB: Football Club Basel

Today we went to a soccer game for the home team: Football Club Basel (FCB). It takes place in a stadium designed by the world famous Herzog and de Meuron. One of our neighbors plays on the team: Koji Nakata - it's similar to having a Pacer or a Colt living in your neighborhood. It's a bit surreal to see the riot police with their batons, shields and helmets before the game - they are there to make sure the hooligans do not start any trouble. Soccer is THE sport in Europe, but for us, it's a good reason to eat sausage, pretzels and drink beer! See pictures from the game and other Basel events by clicking here.

Basel Autumn Fair

Every year since 1470 Basel has held a their annual autumn fair. It is held across the city in 7 different locations. Each location has food and rides and some even have markets to buy hand made items. It was in the low 40's today so we just hit the high-lights: Barfuser Platz, Munster Platz and Peters Platz. Peters Platz has the best market with everything from pottery to puzzles and vegetable peelers to window squeegees. They have tons of food booths and we tried cheese quiche, wurstli (sausage) and magenbrot (literally stomach bread). It was all very tasty and we soaked up all the kids enjoying the rides while we walked thru the other areas. Munster platz has a GIGANTIC farris wheel that can be seen from all over the city. After 537 years, they must get something right - it was a great way to spend the afternoon! See lots of pictures from around Basel here.

Cirque du Soleil - Delirium

We ventured out of town on a 'school night' to attend the latest Cirque du Soleil show in Zurich. Delirium offers lots of the same acrobatics that makes Cirque shows famous, but offered more music and singing than usual. Delirium was produced specificlly for short runs (3-5 nights in one city) before it packs up and moves to a different location. They did a terrific job with the special effects and really captured a dream-like quality the story line required. Another bonus was that everything was in English! We had a great time and enjoyed our night out - it was a nice change of pace.

Transportation Museum

The Verkehrshaus (Transportation) Museum is a treasure of Swiss transportation history located in Luzern. It's hard to believe that the Swiss have so much to say about this topic! We toured exhibits about tunnels, trains, trams, boats, planes, cars and even funiculars, gondolas and ski lifts! They have several examples of these things (even a full-size plane) so the building is very large...it's so large they have kick scooters available to get from one area to another. The museum has tons of interactive displays to capture your interest and also touts a planetarium and IMAX theatre (we saw The Alps). We really enjoyed finding our apartment on the Swiss Arena - the largest aerial photograph of Switzerland. See all of our Luzern pictures here.