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If you book the city tour of the historian and satirist Benedikt Meyer, you have to be flexible: The Basler guides you through Basel in Bern. A unique city tour.
“Here you can see the Basilisk.” City guide Benedikt Meyer turns to his group and explains: The basilisk was created from a rooster that eventually started laying eggs. The group listens – and despite the explanation of the city guide, sees a bear in front of them, maybe even a Bernese bear.
Bernese Bear or Basel Basilisk?
The basilisk, a legendary figure from the Middle Ages and Basel’s heraldic animal, looks more like a green dragon than a bear. never mind
Unknown sides of the federal capital
When it comes to the city tour of the historian and satirist Benedikt Weibel, mental flexibility is a must, because: the man from Basel, who lived in Bern until recently, takes the people of the city of Bern on a tour of the city of Basel.
For anyone who paid attention in geography
He does not say why Meyer depicts the bear as a dragon. Much more, he now shows another – previously completely unknown – side of the federal capital: the Rhine. The river comes from the east and makes a curve to the north, says Meyer, gesticulating. “The hills over there are the north slope of the Jura, for everyone who paid attention in geography at school.” The Jura north slope of the tour is actually Bern’s local mountain, the Gurten.
Legend:
“Here, towards the Jura,” says the city guide – and points to Gurten.
SRF/Matthias Baumer
The city guide tells a “Seich”, says a woman from Basel who has booked the tour – and laughs out loud. It goes “back and forth,” says another. She came all the way from Basel with her friends. “Once I’m in Bern and look at Basel, then I’m in Basel and look at Bern.”
In any case, in addition to Bernese, you also hear a lot of Basel German in the group of 40 on the city tour. “I don’t care whether the Bernese are particularly lazy or the people of Basel who are particularly eager to discover come,” says Meyer.
Bridge over the Rhine or the Aare
Benedikt Meyer, who as a historian is actually well versed in history, also introduced his group to the Wettstein Bridge in Basel. However, he shows them the Kirchenfeld Bridge in Bern.
Drämmli, Drämmli, Drämmli
From a Basel point of view, however, it is above all in the end thick as a stick. Namely, when Meyer approaches the theme of the Basel carnival – a Basel sanctuary, you could say. In the old town of Bern, Meyer begins to recite a verse from a schnitzel bang. Part of the group immediately begins to sing “Drämmli, Drämmli, Drämmli, Drämmli – yeah, uff di wart-i nämmli”. It’s a Schnitzelbank evergreen that everyone knows – so; all in Basel.