Basel

1008 Piece Puzzle

St. Elizabeth's Church

June 10, 2011- Finished

We’ve turned in our receivers, put tips in the appropriate envelopes for crew and tour directors, handed in our boarding passes, and THE PUZZLE IS FINISHED. There were fifteen pieces missing. I wrote a note to that effect, also mentioned the puzzle in the box wasn't the one pictured, put the pieces to the wrong puzzle in a Baggie & put the note in the box. All who worked the puzzle signed & dated inside the lid. One of the guys wanted to be sure it was a 1,000 piece puzzle so we did a count of the pieces in the width and length since they lined up in rows. There were 1,008. We boxed the puzzle and put the tablecloth back on the table. I then put the puzzle on the shelf in the library and brought out Scrabble. Dewi cracked up when she saw it.

All that's left is packing. The last view we have out our stateroom window is a wall. That's better than what I thought was going on after we got into bed last night. I was in bed and saw what I thought was a mouse scurrying across the floor. It took a minute before I realized it was the light outside illuminating the lock that was shining through the crack in our curtains. I peeped out and it was bright as sunshine.

We had a lame orientation talk by a very uninformed young woman before our walking tour this morning. An illustration of how knowledgeable she was is when she mentioned that the population was 4% Muslim & 1% Jewish she spoke of "Jewish churches." She claimed that Basel, the only port in Switzerland, was liberal from the start (13th century) then mentioned that women didn't get the vote in Switzerland until 1971. Short history: Celts, Romans, three revolutions, 1515 independence, Reformation & Protestantism. The population of Basel is 170,000 and although it's the richest city in a wealthy country with an average income of 52,000 EU/ year (32,000 in the rest of the country), the cost of living is extremely high. A Big Mac costs 7 EU. The main industries are chemicals, pharmaceuticals, & banking. French and Germans come here to work at lower wages than the Swiss then take their money home where the cost of living is less. Since Basel is at the corner where France and Germany meet, many Swiss shop over the border as well.

The Swiss, although neutral, still maintain a military sometimes described as like the Boy Scouts. The pope still uses them as his guards. Members of the militia take their guns home when not on active duty and there are more guns in Swiss homes than in the U.S. but for some reason the murder rate is lower here.

The political system is modeled on our constitution but here they have a direct democracy. That means that every so often those old enough to vote (over 18) receive a ballot in the mail dealing with any issue up for a vote. It could be legalization of pot or repairing a street. Only 50% actually do vote. The president is a figurehead appointed annually by parliament. Most people can't name the president at any given time. Neither could our lecturer. 

We rode a tram with Dewi to the market square and there are still some lovely buildings remaining and restored after the huge earthquake that devastated the region. What earthquake, you ask? I did too thinking I'd missed something. It occurred in 1356. Dewi mentioned this as we stood in Naked Feet Square near where monks (who were barefoot) lived and cared for the sick in their church which was now restored. St. Elizabeth's Cathedral where we walked next didn't fare well either but it has been and is still being worked on. Henry II (remember him) had it built. He had an interesting marriage to the daughter of the king of Luxembourg. She really wanted to be a nun but was obedient to her father's wishes. But before she married Henry she leveled with him. He agreed that theirs would be a marriage with no “Scrabble” playing and was true to his word. When he died they were childless and she got herself to a nunnery. Sculpting people was new to church decorating way back then and Henry's image comes off as a close relative to Barbie with an elongated giraffe-like neck. His wife seems to have a smirk on her face. Some of the designs included what we now call Stars of David but in those days the superimposed triangles represented two opposites: good & evil, life & death. Brewers also used the star as a symbol of their guild representing fire and water.

To add to our collection of Medieval torture stories, Dewi pointed out a bridge from where women accused of being unfaithful were tossed. If they didn't drown they were declared guilty. If they did drown they were said to be innocent. Divine justice.

The people here, as with most of Europe, are less observant and churches are suffering economically. To solve that problem they’ve been selling off parts of the churches for other uses and retaining a small portion for worship. Some churches now house department store or discos.

A question was asked as to why we didn't need to show our passports since Switzerland isn't part of the EU. The reason is that they’re interdependent with members of the EU and have signed treaties with the EU. They now have to abide by those agreements. One is free travel within Europe. Switzerland is thinking about changing its open border policy in the next few months due to the influx of people from the Middle East and N. Africa.

Dewi now freely uses the word Holocaust. Today she gave a rundown about the banks here taking Nazi money during WWII and also that Jews sent money to Switzerland during the war. Many of those Jews didn't live to withdraw their funds and the Swiss kept them in what they called sleeping accounts. A bank worker found out that records of those accounts were about to be shredded and the money kept. He reported it to the police and a major scandal ensued. He is probably the only Swiss national who sought asylum in the U.S. Now the Swiss government is trying to locate relatives of those Jewish families.

We were supposed to pack after lunch but chose to take a tram ride that went all around the city. We went with a group from the boat but only one had a map. We stuck close to him. The ride was notable because we were almost involved in an international incident. The man seated in front of us had a large backpack in the seat next to him. As the tram filled, he wouldn't remove the bag to allow others to sit even when they were old. At one stop a Muslim woman in a head scarf stared at the seat and pointed. With obvious irritation the man removed the backpack & the woman sat down. David said to me that the man moved the bag reluctantly. The man overheard him and in very good English told David that if they don't respect us we don't have to respect them. Things are not going well in Camelot. Meanwhile the ride was pleasant enough. The tram climbed up a big hill to the wealthy suburbs that reminded me of San Francisco. Somewhere along the way we passed sheep grazing but couldn't figure out why they were so close to the city. Overall this city isn't nearly as clean as Germany although we were told the Swiss are fastidious. Maybe it only applies to trams being on time.

Today is Friday and David bought me a Shabbat rose. Aw!!!!

Found a couple on board who have two gay kids. Took a long time for word about us to spread.

Dinner was beef roulade and we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately it was filled with bacon so we had to eat salmon.

We're packed and ready to leave after breakfast.

Toby