We spent the day exploring the beautiful capital city of Bern, complete with a visit to the rosengarten to see the sweeping view of this well preserved city, Einstein’s apartment, and Zentrum Paul Klee. In the evening, we took the train from Bern to Basel, where we wandered through several of its ornate Christmas markets that are reputed to be the best in Switzerland. The Christmas markets there were quite buzzing, with huge crowds and lots of happy people drinking their gluwein and other alcoholic spiced drinks.

As we drank gluwein out of our little 2015 Basel boot mugs, Chris lamented how the Union Square holiday market was sorely lacking, not just in the goods being sold but also in the alcohol area. There actually is an area where you can drink at the holiday market there, but it’s roped off and you have to stay within that area to consume your alcoholic beverage. “That sucks,” Chris sneered. He insisted the whole glory of these Christmas markets in Europe is that you can freely wander around the markets with your alcoholic beverage and not have to worry about going over some dumb border line. We even noticed kids who were clearly under the legal drinking age serving us our mulled wine. That would definitely never happen anywhere back home.

I suppose another major reason that we travel is to experience culture and life that we don’t get exposure to back home, and in this specific case, it means being able to drink without boundaries at an innocent Christmas market. Whereas back home, they would be terrified of people doing this, giving alcohol to minors, and people getting drunk, throwing up, and perhaps engaging in lewd conduct, here in Switzerland, everyone is seemingly drinking responsibly and simply enjoying life. Enjoying life seems to be harder in the alcoholic regard back home.