Retro Advert Exhibition Comes to Toy Museum; More White Parking Zones Turn Blue; Culinary Accolade Accrues to Basel Resto; New Money For Switzerland; BLT Tries NatGas Buses

News For 12 April 2016

  Starting this Saturday April 16 at the Spielzug Welten Museum (or Toy Worlds Museum) in Basel's Barfusserplatz, a massive collection of antique and retro advertising signs will go on display.  Once simply commercial enticements, over 150 signs made from metal and enamel featuring the historic corporate and product logos from the period of 1890-1970 can be seen.  The pieces have come to be coveted as highly collectible art, and the collection is part of Baseler Michael Muller's private collection on loan for the exhibit.  Mr. Müller became fascinated with the advertising signs at a young age, and has become an expert on the subject, lending his expertise to the museum's displays.  The exhibition will continue throughout the summer until October of this year.   **********************

All free white parking spaces within one Basel neighbourhood will disappear over the next 8 weeks. The Civil Engineering Department of the Canton of Basel City today began its 8 week strategy to replace all free white parking spaces with free 1 hour blue parking spaces in the postcode district 4055- generally the neighborhood surrounding the Felix Platter Spital and Kannenfeld park. The reason for this is mainly to counteract the daily commuter traffic and improve parking for local residents, visitors and businesses. The blue zones will allow residents to park for an unlimited amount of time with a residents parking card. Blue zones are already implemented throughout Basel Stadt, and very few free white parking spaces remain in the city. The parking transition project is due to be completed by Summer 2016.

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Yet another culinary accolade has been earned by a Basel eatery recently.  The restaurant Walliser Kanne in Basel's city-center has been voted as serving the best Weinerschnitzel in all of Switzerland by the online magazine "Business Insider".  You might be surprised that Swiss restaurants are ranked for serving an Austrian specialty, but never mind that.  Head to the Walliser Kanne and have your breaded, butter fried veal cutlet prepared table side by the able hands of the restaurant's waiters.  Owner Josef Schüpfer was pleased with the announcement, and confirmed that the dish is one of the establishment's most popular - recently, on a busy evening during the Baselworld week, the restaurant prepared and served 167 Weinerschnitzels.

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Today marks the first time in 20 years that Switzerland has put a new currency note into circulation.  The new 50 Franc bill, is one of six being phased in between now and 2019.  The new currency is designed to keep pace with advances in technology that have made counterfeiting easier.  The new notes will feature plasticized paper, clear windows, security threads and other undisclosed features all designed to thwart would-be counterfeiters.  Visually, the new design features a bold green color to prevent confusion with the old 50 franc note, and wind-related images specific to Switzerland, such as a paraglider and a dandelion.  The images were created by Swiss Artist Manuela Pfrunder, who's been working on the designs since she was invited to participate in the Swiss National Bank's currency design competition started in 2005.

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The BaselLand Transport System (or BLT) is implementing a new natural gas bus over the next 3 years, to run alongside its current fleet of 63 buses. Scania, the manufacturer of the natural gas bus is providing the new bus free of charge to the BLT. The aim of the experiment is to test the bus on economy, ecology and availability. In summer 2015 the BLT trialed a Volvo Hybrid Bus but due to the unsatisfactory performance and the lack of fuel savings, the BLT decided to try other options. Every year the BLT transports 10 million passengers, and introduces 5 new buses per year.