The Rhine River is so pretty running through Basel...especially at night. We were there last night with some friends and the moon was shining brightly on the water with all these houses and cafes lit up along the river. Very pretty. But on this day we were watching the river and all of a sudden we saw these heads bobbling along the water (this picture does not show them) and here it turns out that this is a common spot for people to swim down the river. Even the bridges are all marked with arrows to direct the traffic for swimmers and boaters. The river moves very quickly and people hardly have to swim because the current just moves them along. Looked like alot of fun. On this day it was really hot out and we were tempted to jump in ourselves. We heard last night that once a year they shut down all the barge/boat traffic and open this up to the public to swim down the river. There are police boats along the way to help out if anyone gets in trouble. Apparently it's packed as this whole swarm of people bob down the river.