May 14th, 2007 by 
Michael in Basel, Switzerland Saturday was our final day in Holland so our host friends decided to take us north of Amsterdam to visit a small cheese shop and a clog museum. We packed all our things and the four of us crammed into a mini Daewoo large enough to fix two kegs of Heineken beer. On the way I was pretty excited to see the arena where the national team of Holland plays futbol but I would have to leave seeing a game for the next trip.
Going through the cheese room, the tour guide was very impressive as she kept changing languages on the fly to accommodate for all the people. She also reprimanded anyone who tried to come through the door into our showing. She just shooed them off and told them to wait until the next tour, one man kinda seemed insulted but she just carried on with her multilingual lines. The clog museum had a Dutchman explaining how it would take 3-4 hours to make one clog out of wood the old way but by using today’s machines it can be done in 5 minutes…wow.After saying good bye to the goats and wind mills, we grabbed some lunch before we headed to Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport. We first tried to eat at the IKEA market, that was closed so then we went to this food court type of place where like at cafeterias you can grab a tray and a plate. Not that telling you exactly what I ate there is important but I must say Irene and Pascal tried to pull my leg by saying it took like 3 hours to get to the airport for our 9pm flight. They both looked at each other in agreement then gave me a look like, you know the facts right. I knew exactly when our flight left which was at 5:15, there was nooo way it takes this long…right? I asked them what language they were speaking since I was totally confused, I knew they were playing with me. Finally one cracked a smile and we all burst out in laughter. Here a Spaniard and a Dutchman both tried to see if they could pull my leg. Good attempt =)
Our carrier going from the Holland to Switzerland was the Netherlands orange carrier called EasyJet. They had a simple process to getting a seat on the flight. They basically offered fares at low prices by using a system of first to check-in gets dibs on the seats. To best take advantage of this system we arrived at the airport at the optimum time. When the flight marquee displayed that our flight was boarding, we dashed to the mile long line at the security check then headed downstairs. Once our ticket was ripped we where directed to one of the five lines in order of who gets to go first. We were second to the people who had the “preferred tickets”… probably overpriced tickets. When our line was released to go, it was like black Friday right before Christmas seeing people make a mad dash to the plane. Looking back, the other three lines were left looking through the glass doors like sad kids watching us go play for recess. I almost wanted to stick my tongue out and put my heads by my head to spite them but I knew they probably wouldn’t like that.
One hour later I couldn’t believe it but we landed in Switzerland at a little airport called Basel. This airport rested on the border line of France and Switzerland so depending on how you left the airport you could be in a totally different country. Entering Switzerland was almost too easy, just a nod by the Immigration officer and I was through. No stamp on the passport or a search through my bag. This was very much different than passing the border in South America. My cousins Joe and Gina were there in smiling faces to greet us. I think meeting family is the best thing when getting off a plane. Of course that is if your mom doesn’t say to you “where’s the coffee?” when you first see her.
Getting into a gunmetal grey Audi A6 Quattro Wagon, those are everywhere in Switzerland, Fifi directed us back to their house. Fifi by the way is their GPS system in the car, another great invention to man. No more maps…too easy.
Today was our first whole day in Basel and for some reason we must have brought the rain with us. It rained cats and dogs off and on all day so it made the walk around town pretty nasty. Crossing the Rhine River we learned that the river divided Basel into two different regions. On one side was “Big Basel” and the other was “Small Basel.” On the big side, the building facing the bridge were two face statues, one was sticking his tongue toward the small basel and the other was a scary statue of a face with eyes that would wonder back and forth.From conversing with a friend of my cousin Gina, she explained to me what makes Switzerland Switzerland. Getting a bank account doesn’t require someone to prove any type of identity what so ever. That’s what makes is so desirable for “dealers.” Back in WWII days Switzerland prospered from many different ways. One was through the U.S. housing spies in Switzerland, on the flip side Russia was keeping ex-spies here also. So it was a win win situation. Many chemical factories based here supplied Hitler for his “experimentations.” Even though I hear they don’t admit to any of it. They love the fact that they are very organically safe about their vegetables and meats rather than the hormone altered meat that we have here. Out of all this, I have found that Switzerland has a unique personality. They love doing their own thing, they know they make good things and they have large amounts of financial power. Don’t mess with them and they wont mess with you.
