St Gallen - famous for books and textiles

We arrived by train in St Gallen around 10am and enjoyed a walk through the old town to the tourist information office as we stopped to take photos of the half-timbered houses and their oriel windows.

We were hoping to book the 'Old Town walk with Textile Museum' for the afternoon but found that a minimum of four people was needed and we were told to come back at 1.30pm and see if it was going ahead.

Our main reason for coming to St Gallen was to see the UNESCO World Heritage abbey library and it was an amazing experience. No description can do it justice but you may get some idea from the postcard which Ian has photographed. I was quite overcome by the beauty of the room and could hardly believe that we were actually there!

The library, which was built in around 1760 to1770 in the Baroque syle, is considered to be one of the finest library buildings in the world, with near perfect proportions, exquisite wood furnishings, and beautiful stucco work and ceiling frescoes. It contains a unique collection of calligraphed and illuminated manuscripts, with  over 400 dating from before the year 1000.

On leaving the library, we called into the Abbey Cathedral, another spectacular Baroque building, and then found a cafe for lunch.

After lunch (and my purchase of a lovely purple checked hiking shirt at an unexpectedly cheap sale price!) we made our way back to the tourist centre and were pleased to find that the walk leader, Christa, was happy to go ahead with only three bookings - another woman and ourselves.  Christa led us around the old town area of  St Gallen for ninety minutes, focussing on the development of the town as a centre for cloth manufacture from medieval times and a centre for embroidery from the late 19th century. We were also able to visit a suite in the Einstein Hotel which had been beautifully furnished with luxurious textiles from local manufacturers.

We finished the tour at the Textile Museum where Christa explained how one of the first mechanical embroidery machines worked. There was also an interesting exhibition of clothing which was worn by local children at the annual St Gallen's Children's Festival which commenced in 1824.

Our final stop in St Gallen was at the St Laurenz Church, rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 15th century with walls painted in elaborate pastel patterns - much more to our taste than the baroque cathedral.

The bear - symbol of St Gallen

A littleb bit of wilderness in the city