Switzerland Tourism photos A night view of Basel's Middle Bridge over the Rhine and the Cathedral.

By Christine H. O'Toole BASEL, Switzerland -- As I emerged from the train station into Switzerland's wealthiest city at midnight, I expected dazzle. Bling. Oceans of Cristal being guzzled in black-windowed limousines while cruising through a sparkling city.

But that's not the way that Basel rolls. Though they share the Art Basel name for annual shows of outrageous art, this Old World city is decidedly not Miami.

	A view of Basel's Middle Bridge and the Cathedral of Basel (Munster) with the passenger ferry crossing the Rhine. Click photo for larger image. If you go ... Basel is a little more than six miles from EuroAirport and one hour by train from Zurich International Airport. Continental, Delta, US Airways/US West, Delta, and United offer flights from Pittsburgh to Zurich beginning at $738 for mid-April departures. Beginning June 10, the French high-speed TGV line will offer service from Paris to Basel in three hours and 20 minutes. Swiss Travel System passes, good on transport from high-speed trains to lake steamers, can be purchased in the United States before departure (www.sbb.ch). The passes include free admission to 400 museums nationwide. Basel Tourism offers a wealth of detail for English-language visitors at www.baseltourismus.ch. Here you'll find links to all city museums, dining and accommodations, sample itineraries, detailed transit schedules and more. Basel Tourism also sponsors guided walking tours of the city daily from May through mid-October (Saturdays only October-April); tickets 10 euros for adults. The Basel Mobility Pass offers free public transit to all overnight guests in the city, while the Basel Card offers museum, dining and nightlife discounts. Get the card through Basel Tourism (two locations open daily, at the SBB train station and at the Stadtcasino, Barfusserplatz. The card also is available at EuroAirport, museums, at some hotels.

Whoever coined the phrase "quiet flows the Rhine" probably had discreet Basel in mind. Soft-spoken and sophisticated, it's a magnet for arts-savvy visitors.

The first European bridge across the river was built here in 1225, and Basel has prospered ever since. Its medieval history is illuminated in its center, dominated by the famous 13th-century Munster church and riverfront promenades. But its artistic edge is best shown, appropriately, on the city's fringe, where Switzerland touches France and Germany.

New architectural landmarks have sprouted in the suburbs. Many are world-class museums. The Swiss partnership of Herzog and de Meuron (designers of the new Miami Museum of Art), who make their headquarters in Basel, contributed the hulking Schaulager exhibition space, archive of the Hoffmann Foundation. Fellow Swiss Mario Botta added his signature curves to the waterfront at the Tinguely Museum. The Fondation Beyeler commissioned a nearly transparent home by Renzo Piano. And the Vitra Design Museum campus is packed with big name-buildings, with works by Frank Gehry, Nicholas Grimshaw and others.

All told, the city boasts 40 handsome museums in its 15 1/2 square miles. Most offer free admission or discounts to out-of-towners -- making them that rarity, a Swiss bargain. On a 72-hour trip, I decided to see how many I could visit on foot or via the city's famous trams.

Stop No. 1 was the city's Kunstmuseum. The central art museum nicely covered Basel's artistic contrasts (though its collection of Holbein paintings, the world's largest, was regrettably under wraps). The next artistic frontier was close by: the Kunstmuseum was a quick walk from downtown's huge exhibition center, where Art Basel is staged each June. The crush of art lovers it brings to the city rivals the winter crowds of Fasnacht, the city's famous Protestant Mardi Gras.

En route, I paused at the fanciful Theaterplatz fountain. Scrap metal, rubber hoses and mechanical joints pumped water that spun wheels and spurted from the eyes of a regal face. Onlookers paused to laugh out loud, and I wondered what artist could tickle the Swiss funny bone.

During Fasnacht (Carnival), Basel makes merry for three days.The procession through the streets includes the traditional drums. Click photo for larger image.

From my central base at the Three Kings Hotel (five-star bling on the Rhine since 1681), it was a 10-minute tram ride to my next stop, the futuristic Schaulager. A high-tech warehouse for mixed media works in the vast Hoffmann Foundation collection, this massive concrete structure by Herzog and de Meuron was opened in 2003. Its small brown gatehouse mimics the surrounding neighborhood, while emphasizing the building's bulk. Inside, the space is vast and white, with a few compressed windows. Light's not required. The room-sized installations, including contemporary pieces such as Katharina Fritsch's menacing "Rat King," are merely being stored without being dismantled.

"It's a high-tech machine to control the climate with concrete," said staff member Stephan Graus, leading a special private tour. The rough walls are nearly a foot thick. If the Alps ever crumble, this fortress would probably remain.

Equally enduring is St. Alban Tal, a newly chic 700-year-old neighborhood that's home to another museum district. It takes its name from an ancient city gate on the southern bank of the Rhine. Clustered along the immaculate pedestrian river walk were museums three, four and five: the contemporary Museum fur Gegenwartskunst (an offspring of the Kunstmuseum), the Karikatur and Cartoon Museum, and the Papierm?Alongside a waterwheel that still turns, the half-timbered Papierm?et me try my hand at paper-making (a harder craft than it looks). Outside, a light wooden skiff pulled passengers to the northern side of the Rhine; tethered to an aerial cable, it's one of four working ferries that have plied the river for centuries.

Stranded by the departed ferry, I hopped another shiny tram across the river to Solitude Park, where a shrine to a local hero awaited. The fountain at the entrance mimicked the Rube Goldberg style of one at the Theaterplatz. With a smile, I recognized the style of Jean Tinguely, the artist who poked fun at modern mechanics. The curvy building by architect Mario Botta faces the Rhine, pouring light into huge galleries displaying Mr. Tinguely's work.

A view from Kleinbasel onto the Middle Bridge (dating from approximately 1225) and St. Martin's Church (14th century). Click photo for larger image.

Mr. Tinguely was an avant-garde '60s figure and lifelong Baseler. His works included film, performance and "self-destructive machines," all of which demand space. A contraption called "Din" included a moving tractor, cymbals, and smoke; another kinetic contraption resembled a giant Tinker Toy, festooned with gears, velvet curtains and carousel horses. The magnificent sweep of glass wall overlooking the river showcases Mr. Tinguely's bustling city; only a native could subvert its efficiency and invention so slyly.

At evening rush hour I departed from the Tinguely for the Fondation Beyeler. Like Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation, this personal collection of 200 modern masterworks draws international art lovers to the suburbs.

Alighting from the tram at Riehen, I followed a path toward a building that seemed, in the twilight, like a lozenge of glowing glass. Renzo Piano's 10-year-old home for the collection donated by the Beyeler family seemed brand-new. Works by Picasso, Cezanne, and Monet got sensuous display here, in spacious galleries that paired Monet's "Nympheas" with the strains of "Clair de Lune."

Third morning, eighth museum. I headed over the German border. (Here, it's less a checkpoint than a traffic light, a 20-minute tram ride from Basel's center.) In the Vitra Design Museum in Weil-am-Rhein, pieces of furniture are the works of art, with displays of Eames chairs and other breakthrough designs. But the buildings scattered incongruously across a broad plain are works of art, too. Frank Gehry's first European commission, the tumbling white museum, opened in 1989. A Buckminster Fuller dome, a sleek Tadao Ando-designed conference center, and a high-tech fire station by Iraq's Zaha Hadid sit alongside. Guided walking tours are conducted (in impeccable English) twice a day for international design acolytes, with occasional celebrity sightings. "Sometimes we have Frank Gehry sitting in our cafeteria," our guide Regina said proudly.

For lunch afterward, a contemporary bistro seemed fitting. I chose Basel's Acqua Osteria, near the city zoo. Cleverly sited in the walls of a municipal water plant, with glass tiles showing bubbles under the floors, Acqua is where chic young Baselers take long lunches, with an affordable prix fixe menu and carafes of local wine on every table.

I spent the afternoon in the sunshine along the Freiestrasse, where window-shopping for Hermes and Armani, Bucherer and Prada was free. For city souvenirs, I had already splurged on art: works from eight of the country's most intriguing museums, stacked on postcards for my personal home gallery.