St. Gallen, Switzerland
May 23, 2022
We woke up at 6 o'clock early in the morning and went for breakfast. On travel, we always like to find places to taste their local coffee and pastries. In Switzerland, finding a coffee shop opening early morning is not easy. Fortunately, we found this coffee/bakery place nearby that opens at 6:30 am. Although the coffee in Switzerland is expensive, the pastries are reasonably priced. The coffee and pastries were excellent.
After breakfast, we took the train to St. Gallen, 70 miles northeast of Lucerne. We arrived at St. Gallen's station after a two-hour train ride. The old town, Altstadt in German, is a short walking distance away from the station. The city centers in Switzerland are never too far away from the main train stations, as we know now. St. Gallen is a historic town claimed as the center of ancient Europe. The old town survives two world wars without major damage, thanks to Switzerland's neutrality. In the Altstadt, surrounding the town square, are brightly painted timber-framed homes from the 16th century. They are stunning.
As we walked through the commercial district near the square, a sign of "Spargel Festival" in front of a restaurant got our attention. Our German friend told us it's Asparagus season in Europe right now. We didn't know Asparagus was a seasonal food since we can find it in the US supermarket pretty much all year round. We decided to try out fresh and seasonal Asparagus dishes at this restaurant. We sat down and asked the server about Asparagus Festival, and she told us that the festival was over the day before and there was no more Asparagus. Little disappointed, but we still had lunch there. We ordered Pizza, Salads, and grilled vegetables. The food tasted as good as it could be.
The main attraction in St. Gallen is the Abbey of St. Gall, its library, and the Baroque-style St. Gallen Cathedral. They are a UNESCO site, and the library is one of the oldest and richest libraries in the world. We went to the church first, and the baroque architecture and monumental ceiling paintings are breathtaking. We took so many pictures.
Then we walked across the lawn to the exhibition hall of the Abbey district, the oldest monastery archive in the world. As the tour guide told us, in the archive, you could find the property deeds dated back to 1500 years ago, who owns what. More than 1000 years ago, monks in the Abbey started to record and categorize information in books. They also figured out a system to store those books in boxes to move them out of harm's way in case of disasters. The Abbey was destroyed in a fire, but the library was intact. At the end of the tour, the guide took us to a separate room to show us the famous St Gall Abbey Plan, an architectural drawing of the Middle Ages. With the cover lifted, the plan drawing came out of the darkness for only a few seconds to limit the light exposure to the document. The building drawings and the buildings survived amazingly after 1000 years. Taking the picture was not allowed in both the hall and the library.
While we were learning about the library's history, our friend was trying to recover her Swiss Travel Pass. On the train to St. Gallen, she could not find the copy of the pass on her iPhone, and she might accidentally deleted it from the phone. The train conductor was friendly to let her go without buying another ticket, but the museum staff insisted on requiring the pass to give her the ticket. For Swiss Travel Pass holders, visiting the museum is free. Fortunately, her husband in Germany found a copy of her pass on the home computer when we were about to finish the tour. A happy ending, at least.
With the provided slippers, we toured the library, which was as impressive as they claimed. After touring the Abbey, we had famous Swiss hot chocolate at the blue building opposite the cathedral. Its look was better than its taste, just too sweet for us. Since we still had one hour to kill before catching the train back to Lucerne, we walked up the hill to explore the city. A waterfall in the residential neighborhood was good to see. We caught a 5:30 pm train back to Lucerne. Another amazing day!
早上六点就去了住所附近的面包房喝上一杯瑞士咖啡，当然还有面包。今天坐二小时火车去St Gallen,那是一座有悠久历史的古城，豪称古欧洲的中心，因为中立国的特殊性，小城还保留着战前原样，很漂亮。参观了世界文化遗产保护遗址，Abbey Library of St Galllen，珍藏有一千五百年来档案资料，很早就开始分门别类装箱。
