So, after our usual Saturday morning Oerlikon market foray, Greg and I hopped a train for the hour ride to St Gallen, a medieval town whose main claim to fame is the monastery library with over 170000 works. Four hundred of those are hand copied, hand illuminated 1000 year old manuscripts. (I thought of my church organist friend Brian Garner when I was perusing the annual exhibit featuring the oldest existing manuscripts of Gregorian chants. All the words are there but the musical notes indicate only whether the cadence goes up or down: the actual tune needed to be passed orally from one generation to the next.) Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in the magnificent library but do take a minute to click on the St Gallen link above - it's the blue St in St Gallen - or go to Google images.
The library is part of a huge complex of buildings belonging to the monastary. Apparently, there was a lot of money to be made in the Medieval ages in textiles and the Church took its fair share - probably more than its fair share. It's a very big cathedral but I'm pretty jaded about cathedrals, having seen a ton of them in my lifelong travels. This one however ... Let us just say that as Greg and I entered, we both breathed out a "holy cow" or words similar to that effect. It wasn't just that it was huge. Every inch seemed to be covered with rococo gone wild.
 |
| Extreme sibling rivalry? |
 |
| Killing the dog? My, my these were bloodthirsty cherubs! |
 |
| Huge organ. |
 |
| Holy water? Wine? Olive oil? |
Although the town is mostly Medieval with some great Art Nouveau buildings thrown in (didn't see those - next time), we looked down a side street and saw gray potato-ish things suspended midair. They led to a street that had been painted with a crimson rubbery paint ... street, sidewalks and all. St Gallen is full of surprises.
Oriels are like bay windows jutting out from the ediface of buildings. Medieval ladies would sit there and do their embroidery in voyeuristic splendor, since it would have been considered crass of them to actually descend to the streets and loiter with the unwashed masses. In St Gallen, the wealthy textile merchants outdid themselves in designing elaborate oriels: the 1400s equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses.
Like many Medieval old towns in Europe, the pedestrian only streets make strolling a pleasure and stroll we did. The day ended with a lovely dinner and then a train ride back in a really cool first class car that had a separate cabin just like the good ol' days of train travel.
And so, we had a wonderful interlude and I only thought of Alp's pending arrival whenever I saw a baby. (Have you ever noticed how many babies hang out on the streets?)
But ... before I end this blog, I want to share with you a few photos taken on a three hour wander through an area of Zurich Greg and I had not previously explored. This was on the day following our return from our Jura/Vaud holiday and the heat wave had not yet broken. In fact, by the end of the walk, my fingers were fat sausages and only a nice long soak in the frigid water of a fountain returned them to some semblance of their pre heat-bloated selves.
 |
| This guy knew how to get cool! |
 |
| Fancy WC |
 |
| Amazing interior. Pull seat down and when you're done your business, it automatically goes up and flushes. Just to the right are the water and soap dispensers which drain into the toilet bowl. Far right at the very top is a hole for syringes! |
 |
| The water in Switzerland is delicious. We don't use bottled water here. |
 |
| Now THERE'S an entrepreneur! |
Obviously, Switzerland continues to offer up endless entertainment and I've completely forgotten Alp's imminent arrival.
Only 39 days until I hold our grandchild for the first time.
No comments:
Post a Comment