Yesterday I thought I'd try a different method for getting across the Rhein; it was too hot to ride my bike without sweating all over my nice shirt, and I'm sick of the trams, which are stifling this time of year anyway. Good thing Basel has the ferries, called "anachronistic" by some and "entirely charming" by others (source citation? heh heh heh). A cable stretches across the river, and by putting the boat at an angle into the current, the ferry is pushed only by the force of the water from bank to bank. Hydro-power! The boat's got a tiller, but no engine. Somehow I managed not to get a picture of it from far away. Here are one or two representative examples.
On a hot day like yesterday, you may find yourself tromping past ice cream vendors and mostly-nudes on your way down to the tiny dock.
how nice.
The ferry pulls up, you climb on, and a man with no pants on swings the boom attached to the cable to the other side of the boat (shore side); it's not even necessary to push off. As you're gently pushed across, little heads bob along beside you, swimmers with their bright "säckli" (little sack!) basically keeping heads-up in the fast current, on their way towards Germany/France.
(you know you can click on these to make them bigger, right?)
Anyway. Many snobby Swiss people say that they prefer to swim in pure glacier ("glah-see-air") water than in the dirty Rhein. Yup, pretty dirty:
In fact, it is almost ridiculously turquoise and shimmery at the moment. I'm going to wait one more day for my claw-wound to heal a little more,
but I should be back in by tomorrow. It's supposed to be 90 this weekend. Wow. Somebody needs a hat.
(ps. thanks to Ryan for the glah-see-air reminder. I don't even notice these things anymore.)
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