Europe, 2022, Day 7, Basel, Switzerland

Here’s the view I woke up to this morning.

Notice the rain cloud on the mountain. The forecast called for rain in the afternoon. As is often the case in the mountains, the forecast was wrong. It’s raining already.

When I visited Gimmelwald I really struggled leaving to continue my trip. I’d only had three days and it just didn’t feel like enough. This time I felt like I’d drank in enough of this wonderful place to be fully satisfied. I felt content to leave. Nice feeling.

Here’s 30 seconds of rainy Gimmelwald to hold me over until next time.

After packing up I headed down the gondola to begin my journey to Basel. The gondola went through a cloud to return to the valley floor. (I’ll allow you to create your own “returning from heaven to earth” metaphor. You probably won’t be too far off.)

The cloud cover in the valley made it feel like it was roofed in. The weather has been so amazing this entire trip. Really sunny and clear seeing it all clouded up added nice variety to the experience. And it reminded me of the first time Mikey and I visited.

The trip out of the valley was beautiful but uneventful. The train passed Lake Thun on its way to Basel. It was beautiful with the cloud cover.

I arrived at the Basel SBB Train Station 3 hours after I left Gimmelwald. Not bad.

My hotel was directly across from the station.

As much as I loved the view from Esther’s Guest House, the downside was the shared bathroom. There was never really any issues with it, I just prefer having my own. And boy do I in this hotel!

I dropped off my stuff in the room and enjoyed the bathroom before I headed out to explore the city a bit.

I headed for Basel Minster on the suggestion of the man at the hotel front desk.

The church was closed but there was a lovely area in the back that overlooks the river. It was raining a bit and this happened.

Me and around 15-20 others stood around in the rain marveling at the amazing rainbows.

This was just perfect.

I wondered back to the train station to get a little chocolate to bring home and grab a bite of dinner.

I had a flatbread with arugula, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. It was baked to order and it was fantastic.

It was around 7:30pm and I was done for the day. I will miss watching the mountains tonight but I will thoroughly enjoy the European Rain Shower Head in my own private bathroom. (Mike says they just call it a Rain shower head here.)

And speaking of Mikey. This is the portion of the show where homesickness really kicks in. I miss my husband and the dog.

And I know my husband misses me and loves me. Here’s how I know…