04 Sep 2011
Waldshut, Germany to Basel, Switzerland (70 Km)
If one can smoke in the lobby, then I see no problem with one lighting up their butane camp stove in the room. This is necessary because I need coffee and our accommodation does not include breakfast. In fact, our accommodation does not include much of anything at all, including not enough glue to keep the wallpaper down and not enough elbow grease to keep the place clean. All this beauty could be yours, too, for the heavenly sum of 140 Swiss Franc (about $190 US dollars). Welcome to Basel, Switzerland, home of at least two of the richest drug companies in the world and the most expensive bowl of spaghetti in the Northern Hemisphere.
Let’s take a moment to think back to yesterday’s blog, the blog in which I mention how expensive it is for budget travelers to traipse around this stunningly beautiful country. Now let’s take our day, a lovely one pedaling along the Rhine – in a downriver direction, even, making it all the easier – happy to be headed toward Basel, a city that has been on our radar screen for the past few years, thinking that someday I could get a job here (being in the biotech business and all) and we would cycle our way throughout the region, reveling in every weekend excursion, basking in the glow of our Basel-born happiness. The only problem we could foresee was that we knew it would be pricey to stay in Basel, as it is part of Switzerland and we’ve been purposefully rolling along this Rhine River on the German side where our pennies go farther. No problem, we said, let’s just stay in that final German town before the border. Small problem, said the lady at that last German guest house, I am booked.
Okay, fine. We’ll stay in Basel. We’re here, aren’t we, and we do love Switzerland, so what’s one night in one of her lovely cities? Well, it’s turned out to be one night for the price of two. First, there is our dumpy room, found only after it started to pour down rain and Gina walked a full circuit of every hotel she could find, all but the one we picked being over 350 Swiss Franc a night (nearly $500 US dollars). It has a view of the river, though, and as far as we can tell it’s just the one window that leaks, so there is that for which we can be grateful. Then, there is the trip to McDonalds to ease our Sunday-Day-Of-Starvation bellies. Back in the States we never eat at McDonalds but somehow her Golden Arches have become a staple on this trip. This McDonalds, being in Switzerland, set us back 20 Swiss Franc (about $27 US dollars) for two cheeseburgers, two fries, and two cokes. That’s about five dollars for every hardened artery. Finally, there is dinner, which consisted of, and I am not exaggerating here, two glasses of water, two bowls of spaghetti, and one snotty waiter to the tune of 60 Swiss Franc ($80 US dollars). Eighty dollars for Ragu bolognese! Someone call the police, I’ve just been robbed.
Oh Switzerland, we love your pristine mountains and rivers, green valleys and trees, and cycling routes that deliver beauty around every bend, but we must leave you now for Euro-Land, where the grass may not always be greener but our wallets will be.
