Herbstmesse

Fall is here, and in Basel that means the Herbstmesse (translation: Fall Fair). This is quite an event in this town - 7 locations throughout the city are set up for two weeks with carnival rides and food stands: from pony rides to the 66 meter drop Power Tower; from bratwurst to raclette to sauted liver; from cream fudge to chocolate covered fruit to cotton candy. It is quite literally every child's dream come true with all the neon and music pulsating, people screaming their heads off as multiple thrill rides run in close proximity, and a multitude of sweets is never more than a stones throw away. And like I said - this is all over town, so it just goes on, and on, and on..

Now like any good fair, you aren't going to get away without dropping some cash - but did I mention that a single ride can cost 12 CHF (that is over $12 in today's exchange rates!)? Luckily Karl and Bennett were too short to go on those rides so we stuck to the 3-6 CHF range. The corn in the picture is 6 CHF an ear - would you pay $6 for an ear of corn?? Work friends visiting from California went out with me and the kids one night, and for the rides we did go on, the whole heartedly agreed that no 7 year old would be allowed on them back at home. Ah, yes, we live in the land of few lawyers here...



It really has been a blast (once I let go of the money we were spending) - our favorite ride was the mini Power Tower - a 50 ft or so high tower that raises you up and then drops you in a free fall only to catch you and take you back up to do over and over again. Bennett surprised me with having a liking for the scary spin-me-around rides (isn't he a bit young for those?) and we got in a bit of bumper car action as well. Come to think of it, I haven't seen bumper cars in California in quite a while - this is the place to be for rides that have been banned in the United States...


Now the downside to the fair for me was that the main location was right outside my office building. Mostly that was actually quite cool, as I could look out my window on the 19th floor and space out on the rides going around and around when I needed a break from some intense Power Point - you could actually hear the screams from inside the building! No, the downside was that every day at lunch I would justify for myself why it was OK to again eat fair food for lunch. Bratwurst today,
raclette tomorrow - but walking by the sweets stands proved too much for my willpower, so I would take a bag of fudge or candied nuts with me back to my desk. "Only eat one..." would turn into "try and take some home" and for the most part it didn't happen. I need the fair to leave so I can STOP eating and start losing some weight in preparation for all the Christmas goodies...

And speaking of the holidays, we did get in some Haloween fun...



But the leaves are almost all off the trees - my guess is within the week they will all be done. And I heard there might be snow on the hills on Sunday - let the winter begin!