There wasn't any special reason why I visited the three countries' corner and I just wanted to see the place where the three borders crossed. The first picture shows the way to the point. "Drei" means "three", "länder" means "countries" and "eck" means "corner". The city, Basel has three nationalities and isn't this so rare? What is the daily life of people like? Are the consumption taxes of these three countries the same? Are there three kinds of polices? If a man who lives in a German area was transferred to an emergency hospital which was located in the French area, does his insurance work in France? Mysterious but simple questions came up to me.
Walking downstream along the river Rhine, we got to the point. I'll show you some pictures which were taken there. The second picture is the French area and the third is the German area, where you can see a few sightseeing boats. The three countries corner is located just in the center of the fourth picture. In this picture you can also see a cargo ship. The height of the ship is short and I suppose it's because of many bridges over the river Rhine. The river Rhine must be the big artery of transport at present too. In the fifth picture two boats are shown and there was a nice restaurant in the boats. We met two aged couples and asked one of them to take our picture. They came from near Konstanz and would go back by this boat. The river trip would be fun. You can see these boats on the Google Earth, also.
The last two pictures were of the monument of the three countries' corner. If you look at the last picture mindfully, you would notice the national flags of three countries on the monument though the Swiss flag is so small. I advise you to enjoy seeing the borders on the map linked from "Today's Route" above.
(Vocabulary)
mindful 気を配った, 注意深い
mindful of something
＜…＞を念頭に置いている, (決断などの際に) ＜…＞を意識する
mindful that
…ということを念頭に置いている, 意識している
Did you ever discover the answer to your questions? I think they are great questions, I would have been wondering the same thing. What if you have a child? Is this child French, German, or Swedish?
Posted by: Sarah | Oct 27, 2009 at 08:43 AM