July 24 – Mulhouse Zoo & Basel Tattoo

It was a very slow start for the day…and we all needed it!

As we have already been down here to do the Car Museum, we started looking around for more things to do and came up with the Mulhouse Zoo. It would not be a trip for us without at least one trip to meander through the a zoo. This was a pretty run of the mill zoo but there were some highlights including see Ibis birds, baby flamingos and petty goats..who started following us around after some ear scratches. As we are back in the valley, temperatures are very much hot again so it was a slow walk just checking out the massive area.

We wanted to get to Basel pretty early to get parking so with a quick stop at Costco we were back on the backroads to head back towards Basel and the Tattoo. Crossing the Rhine River, we got to see people floating down the clear water (a popular cool down activity here in the summer) and after securing a parking spot in a close garage, we were off to explore.

The Tattoo here has streets shut down for a food/drink garden from 5:00pm -2:00am. We walked through shortly after it opened to see what was available and didn’t buy anything as it was kind of early. Making our way to the water front, we walked a couple bridge lengths and just watched as people floated, partied, etc along the beautiful Rhine. Other than one ignorant man (we watched a dog struggle to get out of the water and were talking between ourselves and I guess he didn’t like it???) it was a great way to spend time.

Heading back to the festival, Sable got a bacon cheeseburger and I got a Aperol Spritz for dinner (probably should have had food and not just a drink but that is ok). After a not so quick bathroom break we headed into the arena (outdoors!) and quickly found our seats. Sitting outside and seeing the sunset was a great experience. And the fireworks were amazing. The whole show was 2 hours of spectacle and was amazing to watch.

At 11:30 at night, we were heading back to Patrick and Tori and by 12:30 were back to our hotel room for the night. Tomorrow will be another slow start but will include heading towards the Rhine Falls.

Total steps today 17,579.