Stopoff at St. Gallen

Apparently the monks from St. Gallen, now in Switzerland, travelled all over southern Germany, because we have seen countless paintings and carvings depicting their sailing about. So when we realized that we were passing through on the way home, we felt compelled to stop.

Note to travellers: It is not wise to stop in a city short on parking when you have a cartop carrier strapped to the top of the vehicle. All we could find without going into a garage -- a potentially disastrous scenario -- was one-hour meter parking. Well, we were only planning on two hours, so we figured we would go for it.

St. Gallen is a great city! I think we could have spent a whole day there, shopping and wandering around the halbwerk houses and shops. Instead, we rushed through them and found a giant beautiful cathedral. The interiors of many German churches were either pillaged or destroyed during the Reformation and later iconoclastic movement, so it was so refreshing to see a church in all its glory -- although in honesty, I think that it was Baroque and so built and decorated after that Reformation.

We had heard that the library was fantastic, and in the same monastery complex, so we found it and went inside. They have handwritten books over 1000 years old! It was a two-story room with many windows and benches for reading, and books lining the walls in what were basically 50-foot bookcases, with a gallery built around at a second-floor height. It was not large, but was really gorgeous for bibliophiles like ourselves.

Note to travellers: Also, there are very clean and free bathrooms at the monastery!

Then we raced back to the car, only a few minutes past our allotted parking time, and wiggled our way back to the highway, back home. The main train station is right in the heart of things and I would recommend stopping there for anyone going through.