DH and I are getting over our jet lag with some aerobic retail theraphy!

We flew into Zurich, and as soon as we picked up our luggage snabbled train tickets to Basel with 5 minutes to spare. (No big deal if we missed the train - the next one was 20 minutes later.) We dropped off our luggage, grabbed a milchkaffee and croissants, then stumbled around for an hour before our room was available. We napped until dinner time, and hit the sack early. During our short exploration, we learned that the Basel Christmas markets would start November 28 (the next day!)


Fortified with a most excellent breakfast, we hopped a tram - going the wrong way! Got off at the second stop and reversed course, LOL! We did find all 3 Christmas Markets and thoroughly explored the Old Town between 11am-4pm. The town is not on a grid, but rather like interconnected bicycle wheels with lots of spokes. By the time we looked for a tram back to the hotel, we realized we were two easy city blocks away from it!

Lots of window shopping, and going into a few men’s wear stores. Actually bought a wool coat (Stelson) for DH at the Coop City Basel Pfauen. Pfauen means ‘peacock’!


Street style is lots of dark clothing with the occasional fun/colourful outfit. Colourful outfits are tonal. I saw olive, rust, and mustard tonal outfits on women. Cold weather and morning drizzle brought out the puffers. Jeans, sneakers, beanies on both men and women. Hardly any dresses or skirts. Combat boots and very low heeled simple, unadorned tapered (think almond/pointed) toed leather boots in black. Not seeing any platform soles on any footwear. Women with natural (colour and texture) mid-length hair just below the shoulder (not too long). More short hair on younger and older women - styled spiky or close to the head and pushed forward towards the face. The men are groomed! Mostly short hair and clean shaven or shorter beards. Backpacks and clean lined unadorned bags. Not much bling or hardware - but a few high shine (black) puffers.

#1 the window of a children’s clothing boutique with a highlighter yellow, cream, and silver colour scheme that brought to mind something Angie might style!
#2 the window of a store that had fabulous garments created with recycled clothing. The new garments looked really good!
#3+4 dark jeans with an unusual textural or woven look that I can’t name, and haven’t yet seen where I shop in Canada. It’s almost a linen look. The fabric has drape. I’ve seen enough people (men and women) wearing straight leg and wider pants of this material to suggest it’s a ‘trend’ here. (See the jeans left leg and ignore the right leg, which is superimposed with the reflection of my checked coat!)
#5 the window of an atelier that specializes in custom garments with pleats or folds or other interesting fabric manipulations.
#6 DH in front of the department store!

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3 weeks ago