Christmas Eve in Basel, Switzerland!!

First off, I have a correction to make. My Swiss friend Laura pointed out that in Switzerland, Schmutzli, aka scariest guy ever, doesn't come on Christmas Eve as I wrote in an earlier post. He comes on December 6. Christmas Eve is when the Christ Child comes and children get gifts.

Mea culpa.

On Christmas Eve, we walked some more around Basel and I got a great view of Lesser Basel from the overlook of the Basel Munster (cathedral) which sits on the banks of the Rhine River.

Next, I have to admit to some serious childishness.

There are some German words which aren't so nice sounding in English, including the infamous (at least in my mind) Ausfahrt.

In German, this simply means Exit, but in English it sounds like a none too pleasant bodily function.

You can thank a particular episode ("German Week") of the Britcom, "Are You Being Served?" for my particular obsession with Ausfarht and it's elusive cousin, Einfarht.

I'm sorry to say that I spent my entire time in Switzerland and Germany trying to find and photograph as many Ausfarht signs as I could. Here are two of my first.

Then we went to the train station to pick up Belgian Laura and walked over to Lesser Basel to visit the tallest skyscraper in the whole of Switzerland, the Masseturm. On the top floor of its 32 stories is a bar/club called, Bar Rouge. I'm not a big fan of heights, in fact, I'm a total baby but it was so nice to see the city from such a height.

This is the best photo we could manage from Bar Rouge. However, I highly recommend checking out their bathrooms.

Spoiler Alert!

The toilets face out onto the city and there is no protective window covering between you in all your glory and the entire city of Basel, Switzerland.

However, if truth be told, the only way anyone could see you would be if they had a helicopter and were perv enough to hang about outside the bathrooms on the 31st floor!