My blog is a lifestyle site and so now and again I share my experiences of travelling around Europe. My last outing was at Christmas when I visited wonderful Antwerp, which I mentioned in my Five Favourite European Cities article. Now I want to talk about another hidden gem that I am currently exploring – Basel in Switzerland.
Getting To Basel
The Eurostar screen illustrates how trains pollute far less than planes.
My regular readers will be aware that I like to travel by land and sea as much as possible. This is mainly because I believe that planes are one of the biggest direct causes of pollution in the upper atmosphere. I stopped flying 9 years ago but haven’t let it stop me enjoying travelling.
For this journey, I popped over to Paris on the Eurostar and then changed stations from Paris Nord to L’Est. I then took a one and a half hour train to Strasbourg before hopping onto a one hour train to Basel. Travelling through Strasbourg made me realise I need to spend some time there soon, possibly during Christmas time.
Getting To Know Basel
This hotel looked lovely.The city centre was interesting and was accessible by frequent trams.
When I got off the train at Basel SSB railway station, I decided to walk the 20 minutes to the hotel rather than get on public transport. It was a great choice as I was able to check out some of the highlights of the historic city centre. It was, however, exhausting as there was a large hill running up to where our hotel stood. This was brilliant for my step count, though. Especially after spending hours on trains.
The colourful streets reminded me of Salzburg and were lined with trees. Many of the hotels and houses had plants climbing up them, making the whole place feel green and cosy.
Basel film festival was on in a group of theatres and cinemas.Statues, fountains and trees line the streets.
After settling into the hotel, I walked back into the centre and found myself next to the famous Basel Munster Cathedral and overlooking the River Rhine. Plenty of restaurants, bars and shops lined the streets of this intriguing place.
Basel Munster – CathedralMunsterplatz – part of the old town
Final Thoughts
Just a few hours into the holiday and I was already starting to fall in love with beautiful Basel. Look out for more of my posts about my experiences in Basel as I look back on my time in this intriguing European hidden gem.
Thank you for reading my blog post. Please consider following my little blog for future reviews, travel pieces and environmental articles.
This week I wanted to share my second short story about a climate related theme. If you missed my first one, check out Caused By Climate Change. This new tale focuses on the increased occurrence of summer fires caused by extreme heat. The aim of my stories is to be bite-sized and thought-provoking. Hopefully you will enjoy it and it will highlight the idea that heatwaves are here to stay and we need to prepare for them and find ways to combat them.
A French Fire
When I applied to do a year in France working in a winery, I thought it was the perfect way to improve my conversational French before going to Uni. My mum was worried that I wouldn’t be able to look after myself but it turned out that that was going to be the least of my worries. A year of sun and cheap booze sounded like the best way to combine working with travel. I had so many plans to explore the region and expand my horizons.
As I settled myself into the grand farmhouse that belonged to Monsieur and Mme Dubois, I was amused by the cute puppy that bounced around the living room. Sipping from a French stew on that first evening, I was glad to be made feel very welcome by this wonderful family. It turned out that I wasn’t the only summer worker, as two others had been roped in and were of a similar age to me.
Gloria was from Hong Kong, with a slight eccentricity about her and Matt was another English gap year student. Both of them would end up being close friends and were incredibly supportive during the darker times.
Either side of me, at the dinner table, were Jacque and Claire, the kids of the household. Jacque was about 15 and Claire about 13. They were really smiley and very intrigued by their new guests. Jacque was constantly asking about London, which I knew very little about because I came from rural Yorkshire. Claire was fascinated by Gloria’s necklaces and was a little shy around Matt and I. She was very sweet and polite whereas Jacque was self-confident and cheeky.
“Do you ever work on the farms in England?” Jon, the father, asked us as he passed the bread.
“My grandad had a farm but he sold it before I grew up,” I said honestly.
“I am a city boy. But I love nature. I’ve climbed Snowdonia with my mates. Just not done any farming,” said Matt, pleased with himself.
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Our lack of farm experience meant that we were learning everything from scratch. Thankfully we were all fast learners. After a couple of weeks, we sank into a routine and were soon spending our weekend together exploring the local villages and taking a train to the seaside town of Bren-sur-mer. The weather was getting very hot indeed and I had to make sure I plastered enough strong sun cream on to prevent me becoming a lobster. My skin definitely wasn’t used to this heat.
Gloria had brought a frisbee and we quickly exhausted ourselves throwing and catching along a stretch of beautiful beach. Finding shelter, we drank gallons of water and nibbled on seafood.
“Someone keeps ringing me,” moaned Matt, trying to pull his mobile out of his satchel.
“Me too,” I said as I finally checked my phone, which I’d left on silent, thinking nobody would need me any time soon.
Before either of us had time to think, Gloria was on her mobile and looking concerned.
“There’s a fire. It’s close to the vineyard. Jon wants us to come back and help make a barrier.”
“Make a barrier? Like how?” squeaked Matt.
“Maybe with water?” I suggested as we all picked up our bits and headed towards the station.
As our train headed towards our station, we could see smoke filling the air over the horizon. Perhaps we were too late to make a difference. I could hear sirens in the distance and the station itself seemed deserted. As we started to trudge back to the farmhouse, the smoke seeped into the air around us and we could tell it must be close to our fields.
Luckily, the farm house was unaffected but the two children were home alone and given strict instructions to send us to the northern field straight away. It was obvious that Claire had been crying and Jacque was trying to act strong for her sake.
“You need to wear a mask. Dad left some on the kitchen table.”
“Are you two going to be OK?” asked Gloria, with genuine worry.
“My aunt is on her way to keep an eye on us,” said Jacque, now starting to look tired.
After borrowing the Buggie, we made our way down the dirt track that led to the north field. The smoke was everywhere but it was our eyes that suffered most. Matt was driving and I was doing my best to cover my face while Gloria sat spitting out particles of dust and swearing constantly in the back seat.
When we arrived, Jon and his wife were digging up some plants and making a clear section between their crops and the neighbouring field.
“We have to make the gap large enough that the fire won’t jump,” said Louise, while pointing to more shovels that were resting against the trailer.
“Make sure you have your back to the fire,” shouted Jon as he furiously dug a few metres away.
I’d never seen anything like it. About two hundred metres away was a wall of flames, so high that it was impossible to see past them. They consumed the landscape and tore violently through the neighbour’s apple trees. It was a sight to behold and I could see the terror in Gloria’s eyes as she dug silently. Even Matt looked frightened but he tried to keep our hopes up.
“Could be worse,” he sniggered. “At least it’s not a hurricane.”
Neither of us was reassured by that. Soon we were smothered in choking smoke…
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Waking up the next day in a hospital ward, I realised that I was lucky to be alive. At one point, we started to retreat but I was the last to pack up and was overcome with fumes on the Buggie as we left. Both Gloria and I had to be checked out by medics and spent the night in the local hospital.
Thankfully everyone else was alright but the north field succumbed to the blaze. A reporter stood at the end of my bed wanting to know what it felt like to be chased by a fire this huge. He told me it was all due to the heatwave and dry land caused by global warming.
“It was like nothing else I’d ever seen. When the wind changed the flames raced towards us. It stank. I really hope everyone else was safe.”
“You were incredibly lucky to escape with your lives,” he said honestly.
“These fires have been getting worse over the last five years. We never used to get them,” said Jon, looking forlorn. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this.”
“I guess we really need to start taking climate change seriously,” muttered Gloria who was in the bed across from me.
I thought about everything that had happened and announced, “Well it’s had an effect on me, that’s for sure. I’m going to change my degree and study Environmental Geography instead.”
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Thank you so much for reading my short climate related story. I hope that it made you think as you drank your morning coffee or planned your summer holiday. Please consider following my blog for more articles about global warming as well as book, TV and film reviews. I hope that you all have a brilliant coronation day.
This is my link post to our April Climate Change Collective article which was expertly written by Smelly Socks and Garden Peas. Reflecting on the past and the way that our grandparents used to live really made me think about how sustainable some of their methods were.
Check out the April Climate Change Collective post here:
I am from the same region as @AndSmelly and love the ways of life that she describes. My nan always talks about keeping chickens and growing her own food and to some extent she still does. She used to grow potatoes, strawberries, onions, carrots, runner beans and until recently had asparagus growing in her garden.
Although now she has a neighbour helping her with the bit that is left, she has always loved cultivating fresh produce from that beautiful Fenland soil. Me too. Even chips taste better when they are home grown.
Repurposing
My grandad always said, “Clear your plate and be grateful for it.” In his household they were always struggling to feed the family and so he got used to making sure any morsel was munched. He had a lifestyle that involved shopping around, going to car boot sales and finding things to make into other things, including furniture.
My mum has now taken on this mantle and finds ways to use old materials to make new things. I need to do more of this and already repair old clothes and recycle any materials I can BUT I need to do more.
My school friend moved to Scotland and is now setting up a sustainable home farm. She was recently on a TV show because of her brilliant ideas. Here is one of her articles about repurposing and reusing:
I actually learned a lot from this week’s article from @AndSmelly and hope that you will check it out. As a result of this I am going to investigate how to reuse cooking water on the garden and using one of my raised beds to grow some vegetables.
Thank you for checking out this post and looking at what the Climate Change Collective have been up to. We enjoy discussing practical ways to aid the reversal of global warming. If any fellow bloggers want to join our group please tweet us or drop a message below.
