For us, Basel means discovering something new every day

Eating an ice cream at Basel Zoo, seeing giant mammoths at the Natural History Museum and seeing art up close – for Lia (5) and Mathis (8), Basel is a new adventure every day. The  brother and sister like spending their free afternoons with their family, discovering new things. Here, they take you along to their favourite places and show you Basel through children’s eyes. Lia and her big brother know exactly where to see lions up close, where works of art come alive and where the best places are to ride a scooter.

"If we have a free afternoon I like going to the zoo best. The monkeys are my favourite. They're either jumping happily around their enclosure or playing together. Sometimes I get a shock if one of the animals makes a really loud noise or comes right up to the fence. If that happens I grab hold of my big brother Mathis's hand. But I'm not actually frightened, not even of the big lions – because they're behind really thick glass. You can get up really close to the ponies and goats in the pettingzoo. You can even stroke them! And the best thing about those afternoons? My Gasparini ice cream at the end. That's an absolute must when we go to the "Zolli".

Mathis really likes the Museum of Natural History. It's different to most museums because you're allowed to touch a lot of the animals on display there. That includes the huge mammoth, the ancestor of the elephant. It always amazes me how much bigger it is than the elephants at the zoo. Sometimes we pretend we're explorers on a voyage of discovery at the museum.

Next it's off to the papermuseum, with its loud rattling machines and smell of printing ink. We get to see the museum staff making paper and sometimes we get to stir the mix too. On the floor above I write down my favourite animal on a piece of paper using a quill and some ink. What animal is it? I'm keeping that a secret! So I quickly fold up the paper and put a seal on it. And of course I'm allowed to take it home with me to remind me of my visit to the museum.

We go across to Kleinbasel on the ferry, and if it's a nice day it feels like we're on holiday. In Kleinbasel there's another museum which is really good fun, the Tinguely Museum. It was named after a famous Swissartist and has all sorts of machines, colourful and loud, big and small. If you press the button next to a machine it starts to move and make noise. The one I think is most exciting has a really long name: the "big meta-maxi-maxi-utopia". It has steps you can go up, massive wheels and even a carousel horse.

Do we ever get bored in Basel? Never!”

Trips with children

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Basel Zoo

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Museums
Der Rhein bietet in den Sommermonaten eine willkommene Abkühlung. Besonders, wenn dabei die Kleider trocken bleiben – dank dem «Wickelfisch». Der wasserdichte Schwimmsack hat längst Kultstatus erreicht. /// In the summer months, the Rhine provides a welcome chance to cool off. What’s more, thanks to the «Wickelfisch», your clothes will stay dry. This waterproof swimbag has achieved cult status.

Activities and excursions