Basel Warnings Or Dangers

This warning tip is really an inside joke between MYNDO and myself. When we visited the Tinguely Fountain near the Elisabethan Church, we noticed the pictured sign underneath the surface of the fountain's water...

It advises visitors to NOT drink the water. Do you really have to tell people NOT to drink water from a public fountain?? Well, apparently so, because MYNDO tells me that drinking from fountains in Switzerland is generally all right unless you're warned not to.

I guess America is not the only country that has to worry about lawyers and frivolous lawsuits.

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Look at this guy... after hanging out with me for more than 5 days, he decided to try on my stuff. If I had stayed for another 5 days, I'm sure he would try on my undies and my bra too. Perhaps 1 more week, it would have been the end of his reputation...

Pretty scary...

First approaching the River Rhine, we saw nice sidewalks and steps down to the river's edge...as I came about to descend the second flight of steps, I noticed an older man preparing to sunbathe by the river. NUDE! Wow what a shock, we don't see these things in Minnesota!

Basel is safe, but you need to know that many who are here are illegal and this makes for a desparate situation. There are pickpockets, so please be careful and watch out for yourself and your belongings.

I was never really happy with Basels public toilets. I think it is most of the time better to go in the Restaurant or maybe bigger shops (most have toilets) or in the Cinema or wherever you are, than in these public ones, where - if you are unlucky- you can still find the needles of the drug addict that was in there before....
O.k. I am exaggerating, but as a Basler I am hardly attending these public places...

Now recently they build some new and mordern ones at the Barfuesserplatz. They are self cleaning and fully automatic.
Thats great!

And here comes the warning:
As I have heard, they have a Balance built in in the floor. This is to prevent two people going in at once ...

Now if you go in and happen to weigh more than - say 150kg, the doors will open shortly after closing, and a voice says: "only one person at once, please."
I suppose this can be embarrassing.

Basel is a very safe town and nothing ever happened to me, but there are some things that must be said:

Especially when there are many people together, there are always pick-pockets around.
So take care, especially in crowded trams and so.
Don?t wear your wallet in the back-pocket or the outer side of your hand-bags. Take care of your mobile-phones.
It?s like everywhere else.

The picture shows one of the oldest letter-boxes of basel, this one is located at the "Spalentor". The bird is a pigeon (of course) with a stamp in the beak.

I almost don't want to put this but I've found it a real problem and irritation here, and so have all of my female friends. The amount of hassle I get from guys as a female walking around town is unbelievable. I'm not talking about walking round all tarted up for an evening out, or wearing a bikini, (your asking for it then!) but even walking round in trousers and a t-shirt. All of my friends have the same experience. Some of the men here, particulary those who are not ethnically Swiss, seem to think that it is totally appropriate and acceptable to make obscene comments, come up and try and start a conversation, comment on your looks/figure etc and generally make you feel like a piece of meat up for auction. This not just an occasional experience but almost daily, to the point where I am nervous about walking through one or two places by myself. The major problem area's are in the city centre and on the river bank between Mittlerbruke and Johanniterbruke. I'm not being racist, I know this is a generalisation, but it is the reality of my and my friends experiences, but it is mainly the Mediterainian European, and the African guys that are the problem. If you are unfortuante enough for them to work out that English is your first language, all of a sudden they want to be your boyfriend, write to you in England, come visit etc. The classic line is 'You have beautiful eyes, do you have a boyfriend?' I was even approched for the first time and proposed to by a guy in the space of 10 minutes. I've tried various tactics to get rid of these leaches, nothing seems to work and they can get abusive and angry.

In my many trips around Switzerland I have yet to see a single thing to look out for other than the general light-headedness when hiking/climbing at altitude. It would be my pick for safest country in the world.