Six days a week, the Marktplatz in front of the town hall in Basel, Switzerland is buzzing with customers and vendors buying food, flowers and more: Five days of the regular market, and Monday for gourmet specialties. That leaves Sunday without a market, but not necessarily without a buzz.
Last June, I was walking through the Marktplatz on a Sunday, when I caught sight of what at first appeared to be golden flakes falling in front of the ornate town hall, but soon turned out to be a swarm of bees, perhaps attracted by remaining smells of food and flowers from days past.
They soon began to cluster on a sign warning drivers that the square must be kept clear of vehicles, and that any vehicles left standing would be removed by the police at owner’s expense. Clearly the bees did not care that they were obscuring the message.
As I, and several others stopped to watch and to take pictures, the swarm grew denser and denser on the sign.
With not a little trepidation (I’m a bit of a bee wuss) I moved in close enough to make a couple of short videos. One brave soul got even closer, and then retreated when bees began to investigate her camera.
Eventually, the bees nearly covered all sign of the sign…
