Day 17 Mulhouse to Basel

Today started off with  a bit of a metropolitan nature theme, first of all we had a family of otters swimming about the canal in the centre of the city, then when we stopped for breakfast at a cafe there was a crow with attitude who hopped from table to table and totally refused to be intimidated by any shooing or flapping of newspapers.

We then followed the Rhone - Rhine canal  and then the Rhine for just over 20 miles to our hotel near Basel airport.   Being still in France we arrived in the middle of their 3 hour lunch break so had to retire to a nearby bar for a few refreshments. We ended up sitting at the next table to Alex, a former international professional waiter who had worked at Gleneagles Hotel in the early seventies and had certainly picked up plenty of Scottish phrases and sweary
words.  He was currently "as happy as a pig in shit" to be back living near his birthplace in Alsace.

After booking into our hotel we got the bus over the border to Basel in Switzerland.  By this time or must have been well over 35 degrees.   The locals have their own way of dealing with this.  They  get into their swimming costumes, pack their clothes into a dry bag,  then throw themselves into the Rhine to float downstream to eventually come out at some riverside bar before getting a tram back upstream.  We parked ourselves at one of these bars for another refreshment but had to move on when Sandra decided there were far too many bikini clad young ladies about!

 After  a wander around Basel we decided to head back to France for dinner  ( mainly because of the prices!)  We are now  about to sort out our gear for the flight home

tomorrow, it is only about 2 miles from  our hotel to the airport.