Turnip Lantern Procession

Well, it was originally sold to me as the "Lantern Festival" however the official name is the Turnip Lantern Procession. The processional commemorates St. Martin's Day. Children carry lanterns carved from turnips and lit with tea lights (kind of like jack-o-lanterns carried on a stick). Here's a little article I found that has good photos:  http://www.momstotszurich.com/2011/10/rabechilbi-turnip-lantern-festival.html 

The procession goes on after dark throughout the city of Basel. However, our Kita (along with many others) organised a mini festival for all the kids and parents at the daycare. Instead of turnips the kids made colorful lanterns out of tissue paper and soda bottles with little battery powered tea lights in the bottom.

Once we all gathered at the daycare, we started to head outside and sang a little song while "processing" around the nearby park. This takes longer than you would think, with the little guys walking on their own, shaking the lights out of their lanterns, turning around, sitting down, you name it. :) Regardless, it was pretty sweet and cute.

Then we headed back inside for some delicious, warm soup. It was a great chance to see the teachers interact with the kids and to meet some of the other parents, aside from during pick-up.

What happens when you get too close to the "flame"

Another procession spotted on our way home

Silly little video of the procession (after we gave up on the walking hand in hand bit)

Getting Cultured in the Rain

Honestly, the weather in Basel the past couple weekends have been AMAZING. Sunny, 60s / 70s and Basel offers plenty of parks to play & run around outside. However, now we are gearing up for a rainy /snowy weekend. Luckily, there are MANY, MANY museums, about 40 within the city limits. Even toddler friendly -ish.

Option 1: Children's Toy Museum. Oh, how I wish Maw Maw was here as I think she would LOVE this museum. I've never seen so many intricate, animated doll houses and miniature scenes.

Checking out the bears in the cars going round and round

 

Fasnacht scene

Museums Peek-a-Boo

 

Lots of carnival themed displays

Option 2: Museum Tinguely. This was also a real treat that Evan found fascinating. Jean Tinguely is a famous sculptor from Basel. Supposedly, Tinguely's work "satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society," which to be perfectly honest makes for cool pieces. Basically, they all look like compilations of "junk" however, they come to life in some way. Some in a very loud way. Throughout the museum there are large step buttons that you can press to put each sculpture in action. The sculptures are best seen in motion so I found a couple links in the notes below.

A long summary including a couple examples of what we saw @2:51, @3:34, @1:50,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmrDEX4P5l8

 

You can see this one in action from the video I found on line here

Someone became a pro at pressing the buttons.

 

  

We wrapped up our visit with our own art lesson

There's also an awesome Tinguely fountain in the center of the city. Worth a look!

Come to Basel and check out the museums! Plus, come visit us. :)

Baby Saving Visit to Basel

I love, love, love it when family & friends are able to visit us in Basel! This time I was particularly grateful as Matt is on a business trip to Brazil for 12 days, leaving monster & I to our own devices, assuming we make it out alive... Luckily, when I called mom hinting a trip out to Basel would be incredibly helpful, she generously agreed.

I was also selfishly excited to go to a couple places that have been on my list that I thought mom would enjoy as well, so we had a packed weekend!

First, we had to squeeze in another trip to the Herbstmesse as seeing Big Man in action is true entertainment.

For Saturday, we made a trip out to Neuchâtel. Just over a train ride from Basel, I'd seen the small town in pictures and it was just a beautiful day to explore a new city. 

Potentially one of my new favorites

 

 

  

 

For Sunday, we finally made it to Vitra Haus. Sneak peek photos below, but check out my mom's blog

We miss her! Come back!

... luckily we will see many of you soon over the holidays!

Basel Anniversary

I can't believe it's been a year since we moved to Basel! When we moved in 2015, Basel greeted us with the amazing Herbstmesse festival. Now that the big man is a bit older we've had a wonderful time celebrating by riding some of the rides, testing out the foods and mainly roaming the streets with the spirit of celebration in the air. 

I love a good carnival! Ferris wheel, swan rides, carousels, truck driving, carnival games, what more could a little kid & mom ask for?

Thanks for welcoming us, Basel, and for reminding us how much fun you can be!

Potentially the happiest 5 rides of his life 

Potentially the saddest moment when he had to get out of the jeep. 

I'm a winner!!! 😄

Israel Part II - A Success Story?

Picking up from last post and our experience in Nazareth, I want to first address our decision not to go to Jerusalem.

It was a tricky one. Before we even left the safety of Basel, having seen snippets in the news, we asked ourselves, if we should cancel our trip to Israel all together. We obviously decided against it. There was too much time and not to mention money invested in the planning of our tip. In addition, we were obviously not the "targets" per se and we rationalized that "things can happen anywhere" (which I still agree with.)

However, after our experience in Nazareth, we realized that the overall atmosphere in these cities was violent and tensions were high. While we still weren't "targets" per se, or a part of either side of the conflict, we decided that we could find ourselves quickly in the middle of a dangerous situation once sparked, it wouldn't matter who we were.

Do we still struggle with this decision? Yes. I mean, we were SO close! We have friends who went to Jerusalem three days later and nothing happened to them. We have friends who are there now and their experiences are wonderful and they say the vibe feels different.

If we had started our experience in Tel Aviv, as you'll see from below, where the conflict is barely visible, we probably would've still headed to Jerusalem. That being said, we in no way regret our decision. We can go back another time. We can return when there are opportunities to experience the sites with a clear head and feelings of safety.

All this being said, we were setting off for Tel Aviv!

First stop, Caesarea National Park along the Mediterranean Sea. A port city from the time of King Herod, now turned beautifully reconstructed old city / shopping, restaurant and artist tourist destination. For us, it was the perfect destination to turn around the mood of our trip.

 

 

After the most delicious lunch, that again monster man ate up every bit, including the ground lamb, we continued on our way to Tel Aviv.

We arrived at our hotel on the beach! The only issue was that we had obviously not planned for time playing on the beach. We walked into town to try to find some water gear. Little man was the only successful one. Then we were off to jump in the waves.

My favorite series: hehe. I'm not exactly certain what Matt is looking at, but it is not the wave that is coming to crush our child, who is thrilled about it. Don't worry this didn't slow us down! 

  

This was his first time in the waves on the beach and he LOVED it! He could've played in the waves and eaten the sand for hours. Now, we were truly enjoying our first time in Israel! After a delicious seafood dinner and a full night of rest, we were finally set to meet up with our friends from Duke.

They were wonderful hosts. Picking us up at our hotel and taking us to the pier. Their daughter is 4 and are due to have another in just a month. The kids loved running along the pier, playing on the carousel and climbing all over the multiple playgrounds.

We then drove to the city center for a tasty lunch. The city center felt like a mini NYC. Every street had a slightly different character with people out and about enjoying drinks in the open air bars and restaurants, etc. They showed us around different neighborhoods that we probably wouldn't have stumbled into on our own. That's always the best part about having local tour guides! We were so grateful for their hospitality and sharing their lives with us during our visit.

 

In Tel Aviv, from our experience, there is hardly any acknowledgement of the conflicts occurring just a few miles away. It's not that people don't talk about it and it's certainly not that people don't care, but it feels as though they have had to find a way to find peace and a way for their lives to go on.

In conclusion: was our trip a success?
I don't know that I had the answer before I started writing all of this. Now, that I've had a chance to reflect, I have to say yes. While we didn't see some of the highlights on our planned agenda, our goals of traveling in general are to meet new people (and we met some truly generous and wonderful people on this trip), experience new cultures, gain a greater understanding about the world around us. This normally involves us visiting beautiful sights and finding time to relax and disconnect. Our Israel experience was different, however, it was worth it to have a greater appreciation for the conflicts that are going on all around us that we just do not completely understand.

Our trip was a success. Not in the traditional way, but I'm incredibly happy we went and for the eye-opening experience. We would gladly travel to Israel again, but will probably wait a little while longer.

Headed back home