Today we are spending the morning in Mulhouse. Later we will travel by train to the city of Basel in Switzerland to attend a workshop. The International School Psychologists Association is holding their annual summer conference in Basel this year. Today we will be there in the afternoon for workshops. Tomorrow we will return for the whole day. 

In Mulhouse, we wander around the old town and discover a beautiful square where the cathedrale and city hall are located. Holly & Cindy find a shoe store with a sales table and cannot resist buying a new pair of good, cute European shoes. The people of Mulhouse are very friendly and welcoming in town. 

We have to run back to the apartment to drop the shoes off before catching our train to Basel, Switzerland. On the train, we relax for about 30 minutes before we arrive in the bustling town of Basel. It is the third largest city in Switzerland. The city is vibrant, active and very pretty. In the train station, we make our way to the tourist office to see about getting a city map and asking some questions about getting tram/bus tickets. The lady at the office was most helpful and explained exactly where things were on the map and suggested which bus and trams we could take. She also suggested the tickets we needed for our day which she was able to sell us right there. 

Cindy & I are off to the Universitat Basel while Holly will spend the afternoon exploring the city on her own. We all head out on the same bus ... we have stopped to purchase some food for a “bench lunch” at the little grocery in the train station. Once we located the bus, we hopped on but could not find the “green” validation machines that the lady said were out by the trams/buses. As the bus was there, we asked the driver. He said to stay on the bus and validate our tickets once we get off the bus. Great! Off we go... we overshoot the stop we wanted by one and a kind lady on the bus gives us directions back to the area we need. It’s not far. Across from the medieval gate, Spalentor, we find a bench and sit to eat our lunch. 

The building we need to find on the Universitat Basel campus is easy to locate. Cindy and I bid farewell to Holly for the next three hours. We choose the old city hall as our meeting location after our workshops end. The ISPA workshops we attend are interesting (but we do admit it was a challenge to adjust out of vacation-mode to concentrate on work-related topics). 

After the workshops, we walk down the hill through the cute streets of Basel to reach the meeting point. There are so many cute shops we pass by... we used WhatsApp to communicate and find Holly very easily. 

Back together, we head up a hill to reach the river. We pass by the Munster church which has a beautiful tiled roof. It’s not open right now though. Soon we are finding the river. We see the little boat that takes people across the river using a tow line. This river has a super strong current. We are happy to find that the boat guy can take our euros as payment! The little boat ride was super fun. We are across the river in short order. It was easy to locate a place on the river to sit for an aperitivo.... Aperol Spritz & the local Hugo Spritz... yum! 

We had one more plan for dinner here in Switzerland before heading back home to Mulhouse by train. We scope out options nearby using google and yelp. Down the next street over is a place that looks promising so off we go. We enjoy a nice meal in the outdoor seating area. Our weather has been so very nice here in France and Switzerland. 

From a nearby tram stop we are able to hop on the tram that takes us direct to the Basel train station where we catch a train back home. We celebrate a very nice day in Switzerland with a bottle of wine from Italy! Cheers !