Day 13 Hike in Canton Basel-Stadt

Hiking in Basel-Stadt was a treat for me.. Not just because it is the first canton I visited. Not because I live in this canton and love it... ahhhhh, but because I could walk out my door and start the hike into the mountains and not have to drive my car.

Part I: On to hiking

So, I left my car parked in the garage, my two friends came, and we started our journey to the Swiss Com tower. My original plan was to hike the border to the woods, and then go off the wanderweg around the back side of the mountain, which is a switchback to the top.

Well, because I have a history of bad decisions, even though I knew the route, and knew we would be fine, my friends decided to play it safe. This cut the hike down from 10k to about 6k, but it was still a great time. A long steady climb to the top, then a short walk to the tower.

The elevation gain wasn't all that much, 790 feet. But, the views were fantastic. My favorite view of the city of Basel was impossible to see because the corn fields were all grown, but, I managed to find a couple of other views which I enjoyed as well.

As I mention in most, if not all of my blog posts, what is a hike without the famous wanderweg signs? I never get tired of seeing them and I am so impressed by the way Switzerland has done such an amazing job of keeping up with posting so many.

And, like in every town I have been past, there always seems to be at least one home that has that classic Swiss architecture. I love this very much too.  Something else I love, is how so many Swiss put their flags out the windows. In the US, it is common, but not so much as here.

Nearing the top of the hill there was a small peek to see the tower. From my house, though it is on the other side of the mountain, it looks only one kilometer away. Funny how it is so much further than that.

As we were hiking and talking, I kept telling my friends how beautiful the view of Pratteln is from the top of this mountain. Unfortunately, while the weather was perfect, the last time I hiked to here, it was cold and there were no leaves on the trees, so, it was impossible to see the town so well from the top on this day.

Sadly, when hiking in Schaffhausen, I didn't have the chance to see any cows. Hummm, maybe I did at one point, but I think they were very far away. Today, just before the tower, there was a field of them. They were not so close, but, I was happy to see them just the same.

Here is a nice view of the mountains at the top. No, they are not the alps, but still beautiful to see on such a nice day, do you agree???

Finally, I did a panoramic of the top of the hike, which includes the tower. I am including the tower in my part ii of this blog entry to talk about it briefly, but I thought this photo fit in nicely with the hiking part of the conversation since it has that beauty.

Part II: talk about the town

Well... I really struggled with this one. I thought, there are parts of Basel City that are really beautiful. The river going through town is amazing and some of the homes along the side are so beautiful. But, I also know that everyone has pictures of this place, and they are easy to find if anyone is interested.

I live in Riehen. I love where I live and I am proud of my neighborhood. My home is right on the German border, next to Lörrach. Roger Federer got married in Riehen at Villa Wenkenhof which also is nice on a more superficial level, but hey, I will take it, it counts.

Basel-Stadt joined the federation in 1501, the same year as Schaffhausen. But, what is interesting to note is that at that time, it was only known as Basel. In 1833, it split into two cantons, one being called Basel-Stadt, and the other called Basel-Landschaft. I will provide those details after the next hike is complete, which is there.

Basel-Stadt is another smaller canton located on the borders of Germany, and France. It is an interesting location for certain.

image provide by wikipedia

There are 192,581 residents in Basel-Stadt and it is a German speaking canton. This canton has a large ex-pat community so it is easy to find plenty of people who speak English, which is helpful for me at work, and some other places around town.

The town that we hiked to is called St. Chrischona. It is a very small town located on the top of the mountain. We didn't walk up into it, but it is perfect for a place to go and have a nice picnic, which is easy to see from this picture.

Also, as mentioned above, the Swisscom tower is located in this town. There are many people who come to see it, even though it seems, or looks to be completely closed up at the bottom. Here are a couple of views of the tower. The one on the left is a close up, looking up the tower, and the one on the right (because I didn't have my wide angle lens) is a vertical pano (if you will) of three separate images stitched together.

When you get up close to the tower, as you can almost see in the left picture above, are two tablets which provide some information about the tower. Can you read them? Neither could I... they are in German.

Some tower information:
Originally there was a 132 meter tower built in this location in 1962. In the years 1980-1984, it was rebuilt. It is 250 meters tall today or 820 feet. An interesting piece of information is that the tower has a meeting room located at the top of the concrete section of the tower, which is 152 meters above ground.

For lunch, we did the typical check for places that take lunch checks, and came upon Restaurant Arte. They don't have a website, but if you click on that link, it will take you to a facebook page for them.

The gentleman that waited on us, seemed to also be the owner. He was fantastic. He seems Swiss, and has an amazing sense of dry humor, which is surprising with a foreign language as these are sometimes hard to obtain with second languages. Well, that is what I think at least, and I certainly do not get paid for what I think about languages.  Anyway, he was really a lot of fun.

About a week later, I was driving past in the morning on my way to work and I stopped at the light, just in front of the restaurant. I saw him tossing some leaves off the balcony. He looked and I nodded, he nodded back. Then, he looked again and remembered me and stood up, waived and yelled hello. I smiled a lot and did the same.

So, lunch was amazing. We each had something different and non of us had a single complaint.

Food time!!!!

Day 12 Hike in Canton Schaffhausen

Well, it has been a while since posting the last hike. Mainly because I spent a good amount of time figuring out how to continue these hikes, and then the +15 idea came to me from my new friend Andy and now, here we are.

Part I: Canton Schaffhausen (pronunciation)

Schaffhausen is the 12th canton to join the federation in the year 1501. It is an interestingly placed canton located at the very top of Switzerland. As you can see from the image below, it is almost completely surrounded by Germany, with just a very small portion located at the northern side of Canton Zurich.

image provided by wikipedia

There is a total population of 76,356 residents of  Schaffhausen. Not one of the largest cantons, nor does it have the largest mountains in Switzerland, but it does have it's own beauty.

One of the most famous parts of Schaffhausen is that it is is home to the Rhine Falls, the largest plain waterfall in all of Europe. The views of the falls are amazing, and while they may not seem to be massive in size, they are quite beautiful.

The Rhine Falls are located on the Upper Rhine river, which, of course, is part of the Rhine. Just before the falls, there was a spot where I could look out over the water, and it was just beautiful. The water is extremely clear and I could see the fish facing up stream just holding their spot waiting for something to eat to come to them... it was really magnificent.  Here is a picture from one of those spots.

While I did not take many pictures of the city, during lunch I looked out and saw the river and thought, it was just so beautiful and the homes on the other side, looked so amazing, it would be unfair to not share that moment here.

Part II: On to hiking

So, I learned, it doesn't matter if I have 12 hours, or 12 days to prepare, mapping out a hike is still a challenge for me. I knew where I wanted to go, and everything started out perfectly fine, but, when I came to a fork in the path, I took it... and yes, I took the wrong one.

Here is a picture of that spot. As you can see, there are three trails. I thought I was supposed to take the one on the left, my friend said we should have taken the one on the right, and ended up taking the one in the middle.  I hope you enjoy the panoramic view. It was taken with five separate photos stitched together.

So, what was to be a 8k hike turned into a 6k hike. There was an elevation gain (all up front) of 965 feet, which made for a nice climb. And, while it was pretty hot out that day, almost all of the hike was in the woods, so it remained very cool, which made it pleasant.

The downside to woods hiking is that there are not many views. But, I did like the views within the woods. There was a small building, I am not sure what it could be used for, though, it was not the only one I passed on the hike.

Here is a view of the trees that were in the woods, and another view peeking out to where the hike started earlier. The weather was just perfect.

Of course, a hike would not be a hike in Switzerland without the wanderweg signs posted at all essential points (minus that fork in the path :) ).

Finally, once on the back side of the mountain, on the switchback there was an opening. At first, it looked like clouds in the distance, so I kept hiking and when I came to the next opening after the turn, I looked again and realized it was the alps way off in the distance. What a beautiful surprise. (sorry if you cannot see them very well)

Overall, Schaffhausen is a beautiful canton, and like all of the cantons visited so far, it has something special to offer. Each time I venture out into Switzerland, I find a reason to love it more than the previous trip.

a continuation

Due to the overwhelming success of this blog, and because there are 15 more cantons, I have decided to continue, using this same format, providing the same information, and going on until all remaining 15 cantons have been hiked, and documented, in order.

Here is a list of the remaining cantons

Canton		Year joined federation
Schaffhausen		1501
Basel-Stadt		1501 (as Basel until 1833/1999)
Basel-Landschaft		1501/1833[7]
Appenzell Ausserrhoden		1513 [8]
Appenzell Innerrhoden		1513[8]
Aargau		1803
Graubünden		1803[10]
Thurgau		1803[11]
Ticino		1803[12]
Vaud		1803[13]
St. Gallen		1803[9]
Geneva		1815
Neuchâtel		1815/1857
Valais		1815
Jura		1979

I want to thank Andy for giving me the idea of moving forward like this. I have struggled for 3 weeks on the best way to continue. I have tried every combination I could think of, and then, I decided to ask for his thoughts and poof, out came "+15" ... it is simple, works perfect, keeps the theme, and allows me the freedom to do what I have intended, focus on the cantons, focus on the hiking, and focus on blogging about it.