It was a fantastic way to spend the Saturday late morning cum afternoon - hiking up the hill to our first castle ruins in Basel! It wasn't exactly in Basel stadt, but was on the outskirts instead. Took 2 trams to get there from Spalentor, and we brought along with us a baguette and 20 sausages (yes, 20, but for 3 of us..hee) as lunch. It was a cold but bright day, with some traces of sunshine, making it a rather good day to go outdoors! We did check the weather forecast the day before, and it turned out that the forecast was rather accurate. =)
The hike up wasn't an easy one though, given that it was really cold (with blowing wind) and the slope was not a gentle one either. But it was ok, and the supposed 40min hike up took slightly less than that I think. (Although, compared to Angel's and Maida's feats, this was hardly anything at all!) We passed by stretches of naked trees, bare from having shed their leaves due to winter, as well as green fields surrounded by fences, and a couple of cottages, among which one came along with a barn and horses! It did smell a little as we passed by, which was normal since there were animals on the land. A pleasant but rather tiring walk up, I found myself perspiring on the inside below my many layers of clothes soonafter! We finally reached a small portion of the castle ruins near the top of the hill after what seems like not too long a walk, and it was a rather interesting place, with stone walls and steps, some parts overgrown with algae, plants and what not, along the edge of the cliff. It was a RUIN afterall, so I wasn't exactly expecting much. And Tommy told us that this was one out of about 30 castle ruins in the vicinity around Basel - surprise surprise! It seems that in the past, dukes, princes and members of the royalty built castles to live in, forming the numerous ruins around here today. I was pretty amazed cos Basel is pretty small!
Me on the way up the hill..carrying the precious baguette which was part of our lunch..tastes really yummy despite being cold! Hee...
Saw horses and a barn on the way up the hill to the castle ruins...And here we reach the castle ruins:
I sat on the highest point of the castle ruins! haha...great view and strong wind...which was cooling cos i was so hot from the climb up!
Beautiful view of the green land below..and with the sun shining its rays on the land too...Well, we found a good spot to start a fire for our little BBQ, and Stevie and Tommy went off to find "firewood" while Yunshan and I explored the place a bit. Hee... Not that we didn't want to help, but we wouldn't know what kind of twigs or branches to pick up! HOWEVER, after they came back with a few branches, which we then used as "samples", we started scouting the area for dry branches or twigs (which are usually easily broken), and added on to the pile of "firewood" already gathered. It was time to start the fire! Not an easy task, it was left to the experienced hands of Tommy and Stevie, who, after some effort, started it going. We continued piling on twigs to keep the fire going, and thinking that we needed a bigger fire before we could start BBQ'ing our food, I continuously added on the wood. Haha...what a misconception! After some time, the wood burnt down to white ash, and I was informed that we should stop piling on anymore "fuel" as otherwise, the sausages we cook would turn out black from soot. Such logical sense! We were to cook above the white ashes, hot from what was burning from within and below! Hee... One can tell that I have never done this before. We always used solid fuels for outdoor cooking back in Singapore, not exactly survival skills aye? But I guess otherwise, we would take forever to start our fires. Haha...
Here, the guys (Stevie n Tommy)set up the fire! Look at Tommy blow into the depths of the fire pit, creating a huge upsurge of the fire!
Next, time to get our "skewers" for our sausages! Man, I was pretty, well, shocked actually, that we were to stick the sausages into wood gathered from the wild! Haha...obviously, it was only an initial reaction, and soon, I was having fun sharpening the stick that Tommy had helped me pick out (think it was birch or beech), with a Swiss army knife (which we also used to cut open our sausage package as well as cut bread and open beer bottles - really useful!). Ready to rock and roll!
BBQ time! Out comes our "natural" skewers (made from branches) with our sausages!
First time I see this phenomenom...Water oozing out of the twigs cos they are either wet or young branches! Cool aye? Notice the twig resting on the stone (second from left) that has bubbles coming out of it...
Ahh...doesnt the sausage look soooo good? it tasted fantastic too!
We stuck our sausages into our sticks and begun our BBQ'ing session! Squatting around the "fireplace", we hovered our sausages over the white ash, and waited for it to turn brown. It was really a lot of fun, despite the ash and smoke that kept blowing into our eyes, making them water, haha... And the sausages tasted SOOOOOO GOOOOOD! Not only were they crunchy on the outside, they were piping hot and simply juicy and delicious! Together with the mustard sauce (which had a tinge of wasabi taste) from Tommy, the combination was absolutely heavenly! And the baguette tasted really good too! It was just such a pleasant outdoor experience. Hee... My hands and feet were freezing and quite numb at the end though (guess it was about 0oC up there), and that was the only spoiler of the day, haha... We spent about 3 hours up there, and it was just such an awesome experience.
At the end of the trip, we make our way down through the forest...Passed through a beautiful trail of red and orange....
Coming down seemed extra quick and easy (well, we WERE going down slope), probably also because we took another path down. That path was less winding, and prettier, covered with red and orange fallen leaves, with sun shining through the branches of the trees. It was a fantastic way to end our trip there - a walk through such a lovely place, as well as in the small town below the hill, where we passed by small little cottages and houses before reaching the tram stop.
We went on to an Asian supermarket after that, which offered a HUGE variety of Asian stuff, including some stuff from Singapore (Yeo's)! We even saw the almond jelly snack (with soy bean, mango and green tea flavors too) which I love to eat when I am in Singapore! But it was simply too expensive, 1.95CHF compared to S$0.70! I refused to buy it, though I must admit I was utterly tempted to. Haha... Got a bottle of chili sauce instead (so that I could have spicy pasta), from Yeo's, and hopefully, it tastes good. =) All my clothes smell really smoky now, thanks to the fire, but it was an awfully fun and fantastic weekend in Basel. Though I am somewhat disappointed I did not manage to go to Lausanne, I guess this more than makes up for it. Hee... Hooray Basel! =)
Life-size "Table Soccer"!! Hee..Look at the huge wheels the people are using to control the "soccer players"... Cool aye? =)
The Gate, a huge landmark in Berlin! This gate originally stood behind the Berlin wall..which was torn down in 1989...We visited the part of the Berlin wall still standing at a later time...see below for the photos! =) 
Checkpoint Charlie, the place where the Americans used to check people leaving and entering this American part of Berlin...
And now I am leaving the area! Haha...Interesting sign aye?
The German History Museum, a former palace of the Crown Prince..The glass building u see there is a new addition to the museum, and wasn't part of the palace.. =) But cool architecture! Too bad the permananent exhibits were closed on the day we were there...
Berlin wall...or what is remaining of it...There are many interesting graffiti on the wall, which is more or less like an art gallery of sorts now... Here are some shots of the wall!
The Berliner-dom (above)! A cathedral which was once used by royalty..
Heavy snow at night, therefore blurring this image of the city hall...
