Switzerland to France by Train.

I would call our train from Saas-Fee to Lyon, France, the poor man's Glacier Express. I mean, the train route we took through the Swiss and French Alps, small ski villages, and sunset vistas may not have come with the words, "A train to fall in love with" stamped on the tickets, but I think we fell in love just the same.

There may be nothing better than riding a train with two great friends, a couple bottles of budget wine, and windows that frame the Alps at sunset.

For train information, check websites well in advance. You may want to look into the Europass, which offers the most flexibility. But if you know your travel dates, buying individual tickets may actually be cheaper. Enter your planned trip at http://www.railsaver.com/ to find which strategy will cost you the least.

Smile. You're in the Alps.

Holy Freakin' Cow! I get to check this one off my bucket list!

Mr. Umbrella, Cathy, Courtney, Joe and I rented ourselves some skies and headed to the Sass-Fee ski resort for some serious shredding of the gnar.

Sass-Fee offers excellent Alps skiing (trails between 2500 - 3500m, an elevation of 3,600m, a vertical drop of 1,800m) at reasonable lift and resort prices. It's nestled between several other ski resorts and the Saas Pass includes access to the Saas-Almagell and Saas-Grund lifts.

And, good news! Zermatt, home to world-known skiing, is only about 16 km away and requires only a one bus - one train travel day. More good news! Six day Saas Passes allow skiers to experience Zermatt peaks for a highly discounted price.

If you don't ski or snowboard, there are plenty of other opportunities for winter fun within this village including ice skating, tubing, tobogganing, train rides, and hiking. Super experienced skiers can hire a guide for glacier skiing too.

In case you need further convincing to stop by this skiing sensation, Saas-Fee was voted one of the top 10 of underrated ski resorts by goski.co.uk.

Muffin Transport, Alps Style.

Skiing In the Alps? Yes please.

Seems like it just may shape up to be a really great powder day in the Swiss Alps.

Sorry, I'm a {Travel} Whore!

I can, at times, become very attached to places. I think that some people feel this way about animals. Mr. Umbrella, for example, could take a million pictures of random dogs. But if I even happen to notice a dog near me, 1 of 2 things could happen. I will scream like a child frightened of a strange man in a dark car or if I feel safe, will just continue walking right on by it without a second thought.

But places get to me. I suppose it's the intense combination of experiencing new things, often times surviving in a sea of the unknown, walking through someone else's past, discovering a type of life I'll never live, while being completely free of all work duties.

I'll tell you a secret. Sometimes, when I travel to several different places at once, I feel like I'm the bachelorette on the hit ABC whirlwind dating show of the same name. I mean, as soon as I begin to let my guard down, allow myself to feel safe, and discover the hidden gems and inner beauty of a new place, it's time to say goodbye.

Remember when I went to Albania? Neither do I. Remember when I gushed about Stratford-Upon-Avon last March? I cheated on him the next weekend with Cozumel. Remember when I turned my back on Prishtina as soon as I met Prizren? I mean, I feel like I'm beginning to get a reputation of quite the little travel whore.

And I must admit, as much as I enjoyed my brief love affair with Basel, I'm just not ready to commit. It's time to say goodbye, part ways and find a new city deserving of my rose. But don't worry, Basel, the number of people that follow my blog is much lower than the number of people that watch those poor boys get dumped on The Bachelorette.

With that said, my European Christmas Vacation Tour takes me and the gang from Basel to Saas-Fee.

Gluhwein and Christmas Sparkles.

Sometimes things turn out exactly how you want them to.

And stumbling onto a Christmas market once darkness began to blanket Basel, was exactly the way I wanted things to turn out on my first night in Switzerland.

I Really Love Sleeping in a Storage Unit.

And I really love this girl.

And I love that she is totally okay with this

sleeping arrangement for 3 people, 1 of whom she's never even met.

But this is what you get at Easy Hotel in Basel, Switzerland: A very

affordable room with no frills, no breakfast, and no maid service. We

decided that, at best, you may describe the Easy Hotel experience as similar to a

cruise ship sleeping accommodations, and at worst, you would describe

it as similar to sleeping in a storage unit.

I mean ... haven't you always wanted to sleep in a storage unit?

And, good news! The hotel's website is painted on the door.

This may or may not come in handy during your stay.

The positives: A private stand-up shower, private rooms, less

than half the price of EVERY other hotel and hostel we looked at in

Basel.

I have a thing for the Fun Size.

Since I was little, I've had a very severe obsession with small things. My sister has it too; it must be genetic. We've just always loved finding things that are abnormally smaller than real size. I'm not kidding. My mom used to have a shadow box hanging on a wall in our kitchen, and my sister and I used to just stare at and then talk about the miniature objects on the the tiny shelving system for hours. For the record, we were really cool; in addition to our obsession with minis, we loved to act out the Sound of Music, visit Presidents' homes, and perm our hair.

So, now, imagine my excitement when we happened to find ourselves standing outside of the Puppenhaus Museum in Basel, Switzerland. I'm sure you can now tell that I am clearly still very cool.

{And, remember how I said museums are all closed on Mondays?! Surprise! Much to the boys' dismay, this one was open!}

For 7 Swiss Francs, we stopped in at this teddy bear and dollhouse museum, which not only houses dolls, their houses, and a variety of Teddy Bears dating back to 1904, it also happens to have a "history of the eye glass" exhibit.

{Yes, we too thought that this was random.}

As you can see, Puppenhaus Museum is a cute museum full of many miniature items and childhood memories.

And for those of you who like games, you can play a little, "Where's Winehouse."

{Too Soon?}

Old School and Christmas Markets.

I awoke on December 19 to find myself sleeping with my boyfriend in a twin sized bed for the first time since college thanks to our cheap hotel and, despite this fact, I was ecstatic for multiple reasons.

A. I was in Basel, Switzerland.

B. One of my best friends from college would be arriving all the way from Chi-town very soon.

But A comes before B, so my group and I headed out to do some Basel.

First thing to note: Many museums are closed on Monday, so plan ahead!

We decided to walk around old town Basel and take in some sights of the market square, hear some bell ringers, and see the Tinguely Fountain {Jean Tinguely is a sculptor and painter dedicated to kinetic art}. If you're around on a non-Monday, check out his full museum: Museum Tinguely. We were pretty freakin' sad to have missed out on it!

To finish our walking tour, we stopped off at a Christmas Market for some pretzel sandwiches and mulled wine.

D-to-the-licious.

Hello Lover. And by Lover, I do Mean Basel, Switzerland.

Yes. The Rhine is why I call it Lover.

Yes. Basel was a great beginning to European Christmas '11.