Central Basel

Mark and I went out to the airport to pick up Camilla, who was joining me for the final weekend of my trip. The airport is in France, and there are different exits depending on which country you want to land in. (I'm not sure why this is required, since Switzerland, though not in the EU, became part of the Schengen Area at the end of 2008.)

We went straight to the cathedral, while it was still open, and there we also got to see the crypt and the tombstone of Jacob Bernoulli. (He wanted a logarithmic spiral on this, but the stonecutters couldn't manage that, so he got an Archimedean spiral.)

After dropping luggage off at the flat, Camilla and I spent the afternoon exploring central Basel by ourselves, starting at the top at the Spalentor. We stopped three times: for cakes, chocolates, and then macaroons!

The Historical Museum in the Barfüsserkirche is excellent, and we got in free in the last hour of opening.

Mark took us to a very nice French restaurant au Violon, in what used to be a prison (though it was warm enough that everyone was eating outside). We walked there through the city centre, where there were dense crowds for a jazz festival.

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