3

Basel

Went in the morning, left in the evening. While walking towards the cartoon museum, chanced upon the Kunstmuseum. We entered this huge courtyard where many people were reclining and staring up at the sky. There were white streamers fluttering above, literally suspended from the sky! We found a spot and lay down and gazed up at the white fluttering stuff with the clear blue sky in the background. There was an open air bar, and some string instrument playing in the background. Chatter and laughter of people filled the air. And from whichever part of the courtyard you looked up, u saw the streamers fluttering, in one point perspective. Outside the museum there were free postcards up for grabs. We grabbed many. Then, we walked to the cartoon museum. A small building squeezed in between other larger buildings. But once you entered, bought the ticket and entered another door, the dimension changed drastically ! There is the old building - road facing, and then there is the new building - behind the old one. Glass walls on both sides of a bridge connected both of them. There were primarily erotic metaphorical cartoon paintings exhibited. And in one small room with creaky wood flooring, there were all kinds of comics and cartoons from all parts of the world placed on shelves that spanned across all the walls.

We had lunch at an American burger fast food restaurant.

And then went in search of a Zaha Hadid designed Casino building that we had read about in the Architecture Design museum earlier that day. We went to the casino in the city centre, turns out its not the one, there is another casino near the airport. We hop onto a bus and go there. Unknowingly, hop off the bus 4 stops before the casino hotel, and then start walking towards it. En route we meet a curator from one of the museums who tells us that the Zaha Hadid building was abandoned at the proposal stage because the citizens found it ugly and voted against it!

So, we took the bus back.. This time, we spotted a Mario Botta building. Some fancy dark grey stone clad circular building. Had to be his design! We hopped off the bus, took quick snaps and had to rush back to get onto the next bus. Problem with travelling in groups where travelling is defined as sitting in cafes and looking around. On reaching the station we remembered the Herzog & de Meuron designed Signal Box building just off the railway tracks.

Quickly walked towards it. En route we walked through a few ultra slick commercial buildings. The cladding material is super slick and some created courtyard spaces have good light coming through, but everything is so grey! Can't complain though, it is their favourite colour. The signal box is copper brown in colour and is looking at it for more than 2 mins at a stretch could disorient you. The box is clad with copper strips and at some places they twist and open. These open spaces probably allow light inside, but from outside look very dark. Apparently they won the Pritzker for this building design. We couldn't go inside.

Then the group rushed back to the station, caught the train in the nick of time and headed back to Bern. By now, I realized, around 1/3rd of the time in the trip has been spent on logistics - where to go, how to go, when to go, what to eat, where to eat, when to eat, who will cook, who will buy, how much does it cost, who all will pay, what to see when we get there, why to see it, etc.