Thursday, December 4, 2008

Thursday, 4 December 2008: Basel and Zürich

Yesterday: Kenzingen and Lörrach



Today is our last day here; tomorrow we fly home. Paris isn't sure how long she'll be at the office today, so I decided to hang around Basel. I wandered around Klein- and Grossbasel this morning, looking for beer and an Internet connection.



Wandering around Basel




The Rhein flows through Basel




The Rathaus, Basel's city hall



I never did find Käppelijoch Bier. I did find a reference to a restaurant that may have it, but they wouldn't be open until 4:00pm today.



What I did find was fumare non fumare, a pair of identical bars situated next to each other, one for smokers and one for non-smokers. I took advantage of their free wireless Internet access to catch up on some of my typing, enjoying a few glasses of Unser Bier in the process.




fumare non fumare is located between the Marktplatz and Barfüsserplatz tram stations



Paris called and said she was on her way back to the hotel, so I took the tram to meet her there. I got there first and had a bottle of Feldschlösschen Dunkle Perle while I waited.



We took a train from Basel to Zürich's Hauptbahnhof, where we found Brasserie Federal. It's a big, busy bar that offers more than 100 bottled and draft Swiss beers. I learned from the bartender that beneath the bar is a bakery, butcher shop, and most importantly, a small brewery where they produce a monthly special beer. So we had a few here, along with some dinner, which was the first time either one of us had eaten today.




Brasserie Federal, Zürich




Locher Appenzeller Schwarzer Kristall




Locher Castégna




Falken Munot-Weizen




Hürlimann Hammer




Aare Amber




Federal Schneeflöckli-Winterbier, brewed here at the train station




Sternen Huusbier Schwarz



A short train ride got us to the Zürich airport, and a shuttle bus took us to the nearby Mövenpick Hotel.



Tomorrow: The flight home

1 comment:

Richard Stueven said...

The trip home was uneventful — which is good — so I won't waste a post on it. Everything was on time, we had a few Sam Adams Winter Lagers in an Atlanta airport bar, and we got home at 10:00pm, about 22½ hours after the alarm clock went off.