NYT Article on Basel

Ok, it's getting kind of warm in Basel too, and it's actually hotter in Vienna than in Baltimore...ah well, it's warmer everywhere now, guess we'll just have to get used to it.

There was an article about the annual Art Basel fair in the NYT which had some good information about travelling to Basel, and commended it on its 'creative pulse and overheated arts scene.' I just wanted to make note of some of the things they recommended in case I can't find this article a year from now.

Comments on any of these recommendations are welcome, as always!

Useful things to note:

• Book hotel rooms well in advance
• No direct flights to Basel from US, better/cheaper to fly straight to Zurich and take train to Basel (train costs about 34 francs, takes about an hour).
• Local tram system, Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (cheap, efficient [no big surprise there!] and easy to use)
• Easy to walk around in [central?] Basel once you master the street names.

They recommended these hotels:

• Les Trois Rois (beautifully restored)
• Hotel Krafft (a bit less expensive, but also beautifully renovated, with a good restaurant)
• Der Teufelhof

Recommended restaurants:

• Stucki Bruderholz (very expensive)
• Chez Donati (arty atmosphere, bit more affordable than SB)
• Bodega Zum Strauss (noisy, but convivial atmosphere, good for beer)
• Johann ("trendy" if you go for that sort of thing)
• Noohn ("sprawling, ultramodern, reasonably priced pan-Asian")

Nightspots:

• Kunsthalle's Campari Bar
• Cargo Bar (river-front hangout)
• nt*/areal Basel's Lounge ("stylish electronica venue")
• Wagenmeister("punk-edged" [whatever that means])
• Bar Rouge (mellower, great views of the city)

das Wetter wieder

Well, the weather in Basel and Baltimore has thankfully parted ways. It has stayed pleasantly cool in Basel while it is now miserably hot and humid in Baltimore. I have also added Vienna to the comparison as I have applied for a job there, we'll see how that goes. I have no idea what my chances are but I figured what the heck. It is rather warm in Vienna as well, upper 80s (30C) today, though it is supposed to drop down into the 70s (~25C) again by the end of the week.

MrB is getting surgery for a severed ACL and partially torn miniscus in about a week, and for the next couple of weeks he will be at home recovering. He is planning on getting his fellowship application written during that time, though it isn't due till the beginning of September. That just means we'll have time to get some friends to review it and hopefully get it nicely polished.

He got me a very cute book in German for my birthday called 'Wie Schön ist Panama' about a little tiger and a little bear who find some bananas and set out on a search for Panama, where the lovely bananas are from, which they imagine is very beautiful. I'm still working on the translation. I just hope that it is easier to learn if you're surrounded by it, because my learning so far has been pretty random!