While poor Michael works each day, I have been very fortunate to be able to visit the sights around Basel. On Thursday I had planned to visit the Mechanical Musical Instrument museum….a mere 1.3 miles away. I enjoyed my walk over the Rhine River which separates the city into two distinct sides…..Swiss on one side and French on the other!! The views of the Swiss side were very sweet…..
…..as were these locks firmly and permanently attached to a gate in the middle of the bridge…..
I was in need of an ATM before I arrived at the museum but was certain, since this is the banking capital of the world, that I wouldn’t have any trouble finding one. Sure enough there is one on about every other block!!!
I confidently arrived at the museum to find this…..
…. a locked door with no sign telling hours!!! Oh well, on to Plan B…..visiting the Contemporary Art museum. So, back across the river, stopping for more photos…..
….and down to the art gallery….but that didn’t work out either, so I went for a walk to enjoy the architecture of the area……
I especially liked this house at the end of a short lane…..
….and the quilting design in these wrought iron gates…..
I also passed the Kunst Minster cathedral again. I had not been particularly impressed with this structure previously, but I entered via a side door this time and found myself in an interesting courtyard that contained different views of the church……
……interesting metal sculptures including this table filled with edibles…..
……and views across the river from a small greenspace behind the building…..
This boat is actually a ferry that will take you across the river. It appears to be a motor-less raft that is propelled by electricity from the wire crossing the river.
I continued a bit further down the street and came to the “Museum Der Kulturen” (Culture Museum), whose motto is to “see the world thru other eyes”. I had no idea what to expect in this museum but it proved to be another delightful experience.
The first gallery was a special exhibit called “Lift Off”. It was housed in a large airy room with lots of spot lights that provided wonderful shadows. This was a gallery of mechanical art and everything was interactive. You turned the crank to make the feathers fly…..
Or stepped on a button to make the hand make a most annoying noise, reminiscent of the woman who sat beside us on the train!!!…..
This video shows three of her creations in action……
It was a whimsical and fascinating assortment!!!
The second gallery was about collections of objects, mostly from the Pacific Islands. The first exhibit that I saw was a hanging of hunting arrows much like the ones that Michael was gifted by his guide in Papua New Guinea. The REALLY cool thing about this collection is that there were mirrored tiles on the floor beneath the hanging so the illusion was amazing……
In this gallery, I found my first quilt related item…..this drum is decorated with ribbons…..
….AND an exquisite hand appliqued attachment…..
This mask had some tiny bead work that made it look like sewing thread….
This fish is actually quite large and is big enough for a person to step under it and wear it like a mask. There is a lever that allows the bottom jaw to move…..
My final find in this gallery was this shield. I loved the designs…..
The next gallery was called “SPACE” although what it really referred to was size….exactly how BIG things could be. I enjoyed the many totems and especially these three masks…..
….but most of my attention was taken up with this papyrus rug…..
I spent quite some time looking at the various patterns that were contained in it and even found some Pinwheel blocks…..
SUCH gorgeous designs!!!
I also loved a large wooden carving of a nun and was especially interested in the fact that I immediately knew what it was by the expression on the face…..
The next floor was called “GOLD” and contained a large mixture of items, mostly focusing on the using of things that you already had….ie recycling. The most interesting thing to me was that these displays…..
….were made from recycled bottles…..
There was a section devoted to fabrics and this Tartan inspired me to think about the making of a Modern quilt using this simplified design…….
The final area of this floor was about Community and Creativity and had examples of classes that were taught at the museum. Of course my eye was drawn to…..
SHIBORI!!! I asked, hopefully, if classes were in session but was told that they were only during the winter months and hadn’t started yet. Drat!!!
The final floor was called “Performance” and the exhibit was made up of various puppets. Although they were interesting, many were just weird…..
… although I did like the design of this tree top…..
There were several places in the museum where you could get nice photos of the surrounding courtyard …..
I must admit that I am confused by the large tan wall when everything thing else is such a crisp white and brown!!!
As I walked back to the Flat, the streets were fairly empty, making it easier to photograph this typical Basel scene…..
As I neared home, I passed this little bit of fabric that had been used to decorate a lonely fence….
….and I stopped and photographed this door inset that would be a fun piecing pattern…..
Speaking of fabric, I realized that there is a fabric shop just doors down from the Coop market so I had to make a quick visit. There was a wonderful wall of cotton fabrics….mostly Makower UK and many from our big US companies…..
….but I was dismayed to learn that the price was 26 Francs per meter. That is a bit over $US 26!!! Too rich for my blood…..
Michael arrived at the Flat shortly after I arrived and I was set the task of cooking dinner. When we were at the shop on the first night, I had bought a packet of Rosti…
It LOOKED like hash browns and I was hopeful that was correct. I spent some time with Google Translate and learned how to cook them and was pleasantly surprised with how good they were and how nice of a meal it made…..
And yes….it was Hash Browns!!!