Pedalling for a Purpose

Firstly the big news ... Joel Wicki is the new “Schwingen King” of Switzerland. The 25-year-old triumphed in this weekend's national wrestling championships. The winner of the kid's downhill carting is as yet undetermined. I slept in this morning before heading out to explore Basel on my rest day. Basel is a city of amazing galleries and museums and I was looking forward to seeing a few. The Kunstmuseum Basel began life as a private art collection in the 16th century. Interestingly, the museum has one of the most significant Picasso collections in Europe - in 1967, a local art collector, who owned two of Picasso's works, fell on hard times and needed to sell his collection that was on loan to the Kunstmuseum at the time.  The good folk of Basel were in uproar and took to the streets to collect donations and lobby the city to purchase the works.  8.4 million Swiss francs sealed the deal. Picasso was so impressed with the citizen's passion, he donated a further 4 painti...

Arrived in Basel! I'll get to my trip report shortly but first ... Ever heard of Schwingen? Neither had I until today.  It's Swiss folk wrestling locally called Hosenlupf. It is so popular that I arrived in Basel to a national competition underway. My first inkling something was going down in Basel town was hundreds of mobile homes and caravans parked up, and streams of people coming from all directions to a stadium to watch this national sport. A bypasser explained the intricacies of the sport and suggested I should go and watch. However, tickets were sold out to the 48,000 people attending. I also didn't want to fall for the oldest tourist trip in the 'attractions' book ... call the hapless tourist into the arena, pit him against the reigning Swiss champion, and 'play wrestle' at the tourist's expense. The crowds love it ... and it is funny until someone loses an eye! Fun fact: wrestlers wear schwingerhosen.   Back to today's trip report! In the en...