After 3 months of living onboard and being out in the sun and the wind pretty much all the time – you start to crave the cold. Really! And the need to ‘hydrate’ everything ramps right up as now in the Blue Dolphin it is hot and windless and high humidity. We keep pouring water into ourselves and it pours out just as fast. Marley is all ticketty boo and we are heading north to Switzerland. We came here last year to the village of Vals and loved the green, the cool, the simplicity and of course the Therme.

When we opened Aurora in 2001 at the Prince in Acland St, the spa at Valls had been open 6 years. It was the holy grail of design and treatments and was inspirational in many ways. Peter Zumthor, the architect and his wife Annalisa were residents of Vals and were engaged to redesign, redevelop and bring something new to Vals and to the existing Therme. The hotel built in the 50’s was recommissioned and improved and the new spa facility was built. It is a maze of spaces – all water. Hot, cold, perfumed, steaming, with sound, pouring, streaming, most inside, some out – in an incredible space made from the local Vals Walser stone. It’s beautiful. It’s peaceful.

The village is still traditional and 1000 residents, 1000 sheep, 1000 cows and only 1000 visitors can be accommodated. The ski fields higher on the mountain are amazing even in summer. A free chairlift operates summer and winter and if you are skiing there is a pommer, that’s all. The village sits at 1200m and the ski fields at 2,900m.

So much grass – and it is fascinating to watch them cut the grass and then stow it in the small huts on the hillside. Some of those huts are now being turned into houses but mostly they are left as they are.

We have days of spa’ing and days of walking, bicycling and enjoying the low temperatures, some rain and even some snow. We feel refreshed and ready for Basel to see architecture.

It is a bit of a shock to step back into a city after the peace and space of Vals. It’s also a very rainy day – in fact there have been weather alerts for flash flooding and extreme weather. And the river looks high, fast and dirty. One of the ‘must-dos’ in Basel is to float down the river in the current. NOT! Not this time anyway. I did check photos. Usually the water is very clear and abut 20C in summer.

We are heading to the Vitra Campus the next day for tours and museums and all things design. It is amazing. If you are into furniture it is incredible and the Museum with the archives of everything they have ever made is a blast. The buildings too that house all these pieces that make up the Campus are also incredible so it is a very nice 2 days that we spend wandering around and checking it out.

Fondâtion Beyeler is a private Gallery set in large and luscious gardens and also on our list to see.

We got to see a solo exhibition of a Latvian American woman, Vija Celmins. She has lived in New York most of her life but her early life in Central Europe made a big impression on her and is reflected in her work.

The spaces around Beyeler are countryside, meadows, cornfields and grapes and we walk the 6km through to Vitra on the other side of the river. In one corner at Vitra there is a tower slide. From the top of that slide you can see 500m away where France, Switzerland and Germany meet. We moved easily around all the spaces but it does play havoc with your SIM card.

We rented a car to make another pilgrimage to Ronchamp, France to see the Le Corbusier Chapel – Notre Dame Sûr Haute. It is about 120kms from Basel down the freeway and then into the countryside, through the forest, up the hill until finally you are standing looking up at this amazing place.

Built in 1955 for the private citizens of this commune it became a place of pilgrimage. It has a monastery and a Pilgrims house also on the grounds. Le Corbusier made the glass and designed every item that is housed in the Chapel. Inside there is the main altar space and on the sides two smaller chapel spaces, one a deep red – stunning. The building has recently been renovated and is looking fantastic.

Our last day – a boat trip down the Rhine. Today is the first day the boats have been able to go as the flow of the river has been too fast and a lot of debris coming downstream.

We are done – we have seen everything that we wanted to see and are very much looking forward to being home. It’s been a blast – and now it’s time to….. ciao tutti – arrivederci

12 Aug This entry was published on August 12, 2025 at 5:20 pm. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged basel, europe, italy, ronchamp, switzerland, travel, travel-tips, vals. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.