Ballenberg, Zurich and Basel

Ballenberg:
The open-air museum close to the Brienzersee is difficult to describe; there are so many things to see. Various styles of farmhouses, a saw-mill operated by water, and many different animals. The diverse roofing materials used were very interesting: steep thatch roofs, wooden shingle roofs, some roofs had rain-gutters and another house had special chimney with lid; something I had never seen before. I didn't manage to look at every house but what I saw and read was very informative.



Zurich: Swiss National Museum
It is difficult for me to decide what I liked most here; the temporary Animali exhibition was very impressive, history of Switzerland was extreemly interesting and the whole museum in general has a great set-up. The Animali exhibition focuses on animals and mythical creatures from ancient times to the modern day. I was fascinated by the different myths and how many of them where similar eventhough they came from different places and civilizations. It was also interesting to find out what various animals represent and how many mythical creatures were derived from real animals.


Basel: 
Augusta Raurica, the ancient roman city
2000 years ago about 20000 people lived in Augusta Raurica, today it is the largest archaeological park in Switzerland.
The first thing I visited was the museum; they have an interesting simulation of an ancient roman house. I learned that the romans had very little privacy, their doors where kept open and few of the rooms were unaccessible to visitors; infact, the higher the status of the visitor the more acess he had in the house. The wealthier romans had a whole bathing complex in their house; consiting of a changing room, a hot-bath, a warm-bath and a cold-bath. The hot-bath was particularly interesting because the water was kept hot by an oven under the floor. Like in many cultures the woman was expected to stay at home and weave; in the richer families a woman was respected if she left the house as little as possible.
The ruins of the ancient ciy were quite impressive, the theatre is still partialy intact and I walked through an ancient sewer about 100m long under the earth (not recomended for claustrophobic people since it is very narrow).


The zoo:
On my last day of the program I met the Villa sisters that are also doing the discover switzerland program. It was nice to not visit a place alone for a change and we had a lot of fun walking around the zoo together. I particularly enjoyed speaking english the whole time! The Basel zoo has a great set up, they have about 600 species of animals. The monkeys have really cool climbing ropes and trees to jump around on and the aquarium is amazing, lots of different kinds of fish, corals and we even found nemo!  



I really enjoyed this program and there are things I still want to see and learn about. The program is over now but I'm sure I'll still visit the hyrdoelectic powerplant in Grimselwelt or visit a chocolaterie one day. I learnt a lot about Switzerland, it was definately worth all those hours sitting in the train!