While we did not do much in Germany during our recent holiday, we did quite a lot of museum hopping in Basel in just two afternoons… Museum Hopping In Basel Most museums in Basel offer free entry on the...
While we did not do much in Germany during our recent holiday, we did quite a lot of museum hopping in Basel in just two afternoons…
Museum Hopping In Basel
Most museums in Basel offer free entry on the first Sunday of the month. We decided to head over in the afternoon to check out a few museums because Augustine has been deeply interested in everything Egypt for many months now (and yes, I will take him to Egypt one of these days).
Our visit happened to coincide with the Basler Herbstmesse (autumn fair) that has been an annual fixture since 1471 (you have to love Western Europe…). These days there are all sorts of rides and food available.
But our visit was aimed at museums and our first stop was the Natural History Museum, which included a nice collection of artifacts ranging from dinosaur bones to a collection of indigenous snakes to the region. The museum was appropriately located on Augustinergasse 2.
Next, we headed over to the Kunstmuseum (art museum), which had a special open house aimed at children. The kids had a lot of fun creating their own art:
We did stop at the museum coffee shop for a very memorable cappuccino…
#notart…this is called graffiti…
But we made a deadly mistake (at least according to Augustine). He had his heart intent on visiting the Antikenmuseum (antiquity museum), which houses a permanent collection of Egyptian artwork and artifacts. It closed at 4:00 pm (we thought we had another hour) and Augustine was absolutely devastated.
We promised we would take him on Tuesday .
It was All Saints Day and I took Augustine to church–the Anglican Church meets in a chapel in the Basler Münster.
We then went home.
But on Tuesday (since the museum closed even earlier on Monday) we returned to Basel to visit the antiquities museum. It was good we allowed the extra time because we spent a couple hours there…with Augustine acting as a docent explaining everything to us. I’m frankly amazed at his knowledge of ancient Egypt.
Look at Augustine taking notes! 
The museum had Persian and Greek artifacts as well.
CONCLUSION
Basel is a great city–a wealthy and clean city–and I appreciated my time here. This would be another great city to live in, though I love that just 10 minutes away over the German or French borders you can live a nice life with a much cheaper cost of living.
