St. Gallen

We arrive at St. Gallen after driving across the Alps to check in at our first Air BnB. Toni chose well here with a comfortable apartment close to the centre of town and Toni's cousin Raphaella. We had dinner with Raphaella and her family with lots of conversation and planning a activities for the next couple of days. It was quite late by the time we got to bed after what had been a long day.

The next day, Martina, Raphaella's daughter had the day planned out for us. Together with her family we had brunch in the town centre and then a tour the town. St. Gallen is very picturesque place. The town while modern is at the same time very traditional architecturally and has one of the nicest cathedrals I have seen. From the town centre we visited the very taditional Swiss town of Appenzell. This is a quaint village with its own brewery and cheese factory. All set amongst rolling green hills, cows with tall grey mountains as a backdrop.

Later in the day we visited Lake Bodence to the north of St. Gallen, which forms the border between Switzerland and Germany. It has a very nicely developed forshore with parks and avenues of trees. The lake supports all kinds of water activities but was quite choppy when we were there.

The next place we visited was a parkland in the hills behind the city, providing a complete view of St. Gallen below it. The park is a forest setting with a series of 3 cascading lakes that have been set up for swimming, water polo and diving. This a a really good setup for all the locals to use.

Lastly we noticed what appeared to be many little huts amongst what looked like flower and vegetable gardens. This was correct. Most people live in apartments without land, so the council rents out tracts of land for any residents prepared to pay a small yearly fee to have access to grow their own fruit, vegetables. One of Carmelo's friends showed us around and allowed us to try some of his fresh veggies. It was amazing to see some of these little gardens.

Everywhere you looked there was a photo to be taken with every scene that could be a post card. A genuinely pretty place with a good balance between a modern town a traditional town and a country ambience.Read more