Wednesday, 17 April, 2024

 Frankfurt to Basel: The overnight flight was quite comfortable, though the food was nothing to brag about. Unsurprisingly, we were too late for our train to Basel. Because we had asked for assistance, we expected a smooth transition, but that was not to be. Someone met us with a wheelchair, but took us only as far as the nearest pick-up point for an electric transport cart. Then the driver of that wouldn’t take us because we were going too far. The next person to offer help assured us that there was no train station in the terminal -- that was certainly reassuring! Next was a guy with a wheelchair, who told us we needed the electric cart. He did check that one was coming for us, and eventually it did. Phew! The long ride to baggage claim was a bit like an F1 race, and from there we were back with a wheelchair, which meant that I was hauling 2 big suitcases, and Larry was stacked up with carry-ons. First off was a very quick pass through Customs/Immigration in some side corridor. Next up was the issue of our missed connection and train reservation. A special assistance agent spent awhile on the phone and eventually gave us boarding passes for a train leaving about an hour later. The wheelchair lady could only take us as far as a waiting area by an elevator to the platform listed on our tickets.

While we waited, Larry noticed a sign board that indicated a different platform. I checked with the information booth and verified that our boarding passes were wrong and the board was right. So we went to the other platform. Close call! The trains are so tightly scheduled that 2 others left from that platform in the 15 minutes we were there, but eventually we got onto the one to Basel. It is quiet, smooth and fast -- generally about 150kph, [but there were some peeks]

so the very comfortable trip to Basel took about 3 hours. Looking at our information, we discovered that our hotel, the Hyperion, was very close to the Basel Bad station, one stop before the main Basel one,  so we disembarked there and walked to the hotel. We arrived about 1:30 and couldn’t check in until 3, so we had lunch and relaxed in the lobby. Once into our room, we rested and napped until 5:30 or so. On the advice of a Viking host, who happened to have a desk in the lobby, we decided to simply board one of the beautiful city streetcars and ride its entire loop.

It is free to hotel guests, and while there was no narrative description, we saw a lot of this wonderful city. Public transit is obviously excellent and we saw very few cars and lots of bikes. Back at the Hyperion, we enjoyed wiener schnitzel for dinner and retired to our room.