Tuesday 21st October

I got up early and packed before heading off to the MUSIK ACADEMIE DER STADT BASEL where Tina had organised for me to meet with Bernhard Guldimann, one of the librarians there.
got a bit lost getting there, but finally made it and it was a most enjoyable visit. Beautiful setting and masses of music students of all nationalities were milling around. The library is currently very overcrowded , but a new purpose built library is being built nearby- most of it will be underground. I was able to view the plans and it will be amazing.
I spent a couple of hours with Bernhard and then he took me to the nearby public library, ALLEGMEINE BIBLIOTHEKEN der GGG BASEL, and left me there to look around by myself. I was very grateful for his help, as it was a bit tricky and my sense of direction seemed to be lacking. This was also an interesting experience, as although the library was run by local government , belonging incurs fees. (and there are no real branches in the suburbs) It is upstairs in a quaint building and consists of three floors. The first floor is a reading room with newspapers and magazines and a small reference collection. As everywhere, people here still seem to prefer to access hard copy newspapers. The next floor was for non-fiction and this was arranged in Dewey order , but only two numbers after the decimal point. The interesting thing was that all types of media were grouped in the subject area. Yet again, as in Sweden comics and graphic novels featured as a large separate section.
An extensive collection of music CDs grouped in subject areas was also on this floor. HIP-HOP seems the same in everyone's language and there was a separate section for this, as well as the usual categories everyone uses.
The top floor was for Adult fiction which was in alphabetical order by author except for a couple of special categories. The biography section- classified as 99, was also on this floor as was childrens fiction and picture books.
I chatted with one of the librarians on duty for a few minutes and she was saying how overcrowded the library was- the usual story, but I wish she could see our Haymarket Branch - she would think the Basel library was a palace.
I then headed for the KUNSTMUSEUM -the Art Gallery i.e. and after a pleasant lunch in the cafe there I spent the afternoon looking at the wonderful special Sill Life exhibition . Also enjoyed some impressionists and Hans Holbein works in the permanent collection.
It was then time for me to catch the number 8 tram for the last time and head back to the hotel to wait for Tina to pick me up and take me to the airport. It was really sad saying goodbye to her as we had such a nice time together.
However, I hopped on my smallish plane and arrived at London City Airport at 8p.m.where Ernie (my ex-husband) was waiting to meet me. We caught a taxi home to his flat here in Woolwich.