St. Gallen & Appenzell

Populations: 70,380 & 5,710
Rococo architecture.  Cheese.

We did another day-trip (July 14) and headed to the NE region of Switzerland to visit St. Gallen and Appenzell.  It’s a rural area with lush, green rolling hills and jagged mountains.  It’s a big haven for hiking and cycling enthusiasts as well.  We were just on a quick trip, so we only hit the towns. 

St. Gallen

St. Gallen houses a famous monastery, library and university, and an old town with traditional half-timbered houses.  It was founded by Saint Gall in the 7th century.

“St. Gallen all began with a bush, a bear and an Irish monk, who should have watched where he was going.  In AD 612, the tale goes, itinerant Gallus fell into a briar and considered the stumble a calling from God.  After a fortuitous encounter with a bear, in which he persuaded it to bring him a log, take some bread in return and leave him in peace, he used the log to begin building a hermitage that would one day morph into St. Gallen’s cathedral.” (LP, 2009).

The Abbey library (Stiftsbibliothek) was magnificent, right out of an Indiana Jones movie, I swear!  We had to put on wool slippers over our shoes before entering and unfortunately, no pictures were allowed - I got the below online.  It’s one of the oldest libraries in the world with impressive rococo architecture.  It’s dimly lit and filled with gorgeous, extremely old books handwritten by monks during the Middle Ages (and earlier).  The library had various “sections” which pre-date the Dewey decimal system by centuries.  Apparently, the monks had a special filing system of their own.  There’s a mummy in the corner, frescos adorning the ceiling and dark wood everywhere.  It’s very cozy, indeed, not to mention completely pristine given its age.

St. Gallen also has a portion of the historic downtown area covered in rubberized red tennis-court coating.  It’s an art installation which is supposed to echo an “outdoor living room” and promote people to linger/chart.  It was undergoing construction while we were there so we didn’t really get the full effect.

Appenzell

We then hopped back on a cog-wheeled train (for steep terrain) and headed up to Appenzell, a colorful town famous for its strong smelling cheeses.  We wandered through the old town with its picturesque, pastel-colored buildings and passed numerous bakeries with the region’s local delicacies on display. We feasted on yet more sausage (Matt tried "Siedwurst", which is "local sausage") and I had a regular, grilled bratwurst with the traditional side of rosti.   We also stopped by a local brewery (Brauerei Locher), took a free audio tour and watched a hilarious short movie (subtitled in English and French) about a “queen” who was ill and sent her dwarves to find a cure (which ended up being the beer, of course!).   It was a 3-hour train ride to get back to Basel and we were definitely tired after our long day! 

 

Beer tour!

I'm the only girl here!

 

Anyone want a gnome?