melev

This set of pictures is specifically from Marktplatz. I spent many hours here while living in Basel, because it is the hub for all the stores in Grosse Basel. Basel is divided by the Rhein river, with Klein Basel on one side, and Grosse Basel on the other. Grosse is big, and Kleine is small. From Marktplatz, you can walk in several directions to shop as much as your heart desires and your wallet reaches. Clothing, furniture, food, restaurants, watches, jewelry, toys, music, photography and much much more is available. If you take several of the trams in town, you'll pass through Marktplatz.

Each day, a group of 20 or more vendors set up their beautiful stands for about 8 hours, selling meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, vegetables, flowers, hot and cold sandwiches, and other sundries.



Dead center, those are Kasekuchen - basically a warm snack that is a soft pie shell with cheese inside. Yum. Quiche to the left.








One vendor sold baskets of all kinds, and this thing was designed for honey bees. I guess you set it up in your backyard and the bees know what to do.





This almost looks like postcard material to me.












Those funny striped grapes (?) caught my eye.


I've really enjoyed viewing these pictures on my Mac. It's almost a crime to resize them down to 770 pixels for the web, but you'd hate the download time if I shared larger files.


I bought some of the delicious raspberries to snack upon during my travels.





Hands down, my all time favorite bread. I've tried bringing it home before, but it grows moldy in mere days. It must not have any preservatives. It's called Basler Brot Halbweiss, which means "half-white bread." It has a terrific crust and the bread is rather dense, somewhat like a sourdough's consistency or maybe a French bastard bread. A nice thick slice with a little butter and a nice jam or butter-like honey and I'm as happy as can be for the time being.


Towering over the center of Marktplatz is the Rathaus. While I've never tried to determine what they do there, I'm assuming this is City Hall for governmental business. As the vendors cleared out, I was able to get some nice pictures. It stands about six stories tall.



Btw, in Europe, the ground floor is almost exclusively 0. The first story is marked 1, the second 2, and so forth. Not all places are elevators or escalators, so plan on climbing stair cases often. Then again, the entire country is hills and mountains, so you'll get your exercise without exception.


These sculptures are so nice, too bad they are three stories up and thus only truly visible with a camera or binoculars.


Made of gold or maybe wrapped with gold leaf, it almost glows in the sunlight.






I've seen this building 100s of times, but never took the time to really look at the painted murals. I think I like the overall structure, the bells and the spire more.






The bells chime often, I believe both at the top and bottom of the hour.



Tourists often walk into the courtyard within, as have I. I've never tried to go in further to see the offices.



A few years ago, my mother sent me a picture of Marktplatz when it was under massive construction. The entire section of tram rails had be ripped out, and I'd imagine while that was being done, plumbing was being replaced as well. It really affected that part of town, with trams no longer being able to travel their normal route through this juncture. It was nice to see everything back to normal as if it had never happened.