A day of culture

Have you guessed where we are yet?

A clue - the red sandstone City Hall dominates the market place and has the most wonderful painted walls in a small courtyard. We spent quite some time there this morning as we walked around the Old Town in the spring sunshine. The weather forecast was none too good for later so we tried to make the best of the day.

We pottered around one or two shops along the way, amused by the sight of this book, a German version of the one being chatted about by some friends in the last couple of days!


This statue of Helvetia will settle any doubts about this favourite of ours. We love the way she's resting her shield and spear, putting down her suitcase and making the decision to go no further!

After a morning walking around, we too were feeling a little footsore, so around lunchtime, we hopped aboard a tram and headed to the Fondation Beyeler


Reminiscent of the Burrell Collection, situated in parkland with large plate glass windows, this is a fantastic gallery of modern art. Sadly no photographs allowed inside, but you can imagine the wealth of treasures inside by Picasso, Mondrian, Van Gogh, Monet, Rothko, Kandinsky,
Giacometti...the list goes on. The special exhibition on right now is of Action Painting - with several pieces by Jackson Pollock amongst other artists of whom we'd never heard. All used some kind of energetic way of creating their art and the results were....well, "interesting"...It's worth following the link from the main Beyeler website to find out more about this fascinating show.

Back into town then, to buy sock yarn and other essentials - and of course, you've worked it out by now, haven't you? We're in Basel, Switzerland, and very nice it is too!