Fun with International Borders

One of the many fun and interesting things about our trip was how quickly and easily we crossed international borders. It all started in the Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg International airport which is a multi-country airport. It is considered a Swiss airport on French soil and includes the name of a German city. To make it even more fun, the airport is sometimes called by its German name, Basel, while at other times, it’s called it's French name, Bale. Passengers have a choice of going through Swiss or French immigration at the airport.

The Grunaus town of Neuenburg is less than a mile from France. They said many French people come across the border to enjoy the lower prices at their grocery stores and relax with some delicious ice cream in their town square.  This is a picture from our drive to the airport. Elisabeth drove in front of us so we knew the way as our navigation system only covered Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Even though its just barely into French territory and considered a Swiss airport, the airport was not included on our device. 

We spent part of Sunday afternoon sightseeing with the TOURMEISTER Rudi while the kids were at a piano recital rehearsal and Elisabeth was preparing for her upcoming summer camp. He dropped us off on the German side of the Rhein and picked us up on the French side. Here is the railroad sign indicating the DB (German rail) kilometer marking and the SNCF (French rail) kilometer marking in the center of the river.

One foot in Germany and one foot in France.  A dream come true for me!!

Here is Doug posing at the French side of the Rhine (yes you can spell it Rhein or Rhine) River. There are parts of the German autobahn with no speed limit although the “recommended” top speed is 130 kilometers in those parts. We did get our car up to 130 for a short time and we were nowhere near being the fastest car on the road. The French have speed limits everywhere.

We received several sincere warnings about not speeding in Switzerland from several Germans we met. They said the Swiss are very serious about their speeds. Drivers who are caught speeding in Switzerland must pay their fines in cash on the spot or be taken to jail until someone can bring them the money. We did notice the Swiss are more than happy to “light it up” when they get on the German autobahn.

Here Rudi and I are looking across a small offshoot of the Rhine River. Rudi told us that in the treaty to end World War 1, France was awarded the rights to produce power using the water in the Rhine so the bulk of the water goes through a channel a few hundred meters from the natural river while the smaller river indicates the border between Germany and France. This is just where the locals and their dogs go for a quick dip in the river.

Here are Doug, Johanna and Rudi checking out the Rhine River in Switzerland in its natural state.