NEW beginnings
An ample amount of rain had fallen on Zürich when we arrived one early morning of aut umn. From t he airport, we needed to walk for about three minutes to get to the rail station to catch the train to the city of St. Gallen, the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, that would leave at 7:21 a.m. Thirty seconds before its scheduled arrival, the train began to enter the Zürich Flughafen station. At exactly 7:21 a.m., the train’s doors opened in front of us. Such precision.
It was an almost one-hour panoramic journey from Zürich to St. Gallen. Fall had just begun and the trees that lined the railway or abundantly growing on the meandering hills were still shy to change to autumn color. The ride was smooth. My best friend Christine Dayrit and I could almost smell the freshness of the verdant valleys outside. A waiter with a coffee pot in one hand approached us to entice us to go to the restaurant. We each bought a delicious bento of croissant and cheeses that came with orange juice. But the gorgeous scenery of hills populated by Brown Swiss cows and wild flowers and houses with geraniums blooming in profusion by the windows was enough for our breakfast. Christine and I shared our spacious and comfortable section of the coach with a Swiss lady who dozed off the minute she took her seat.
At exactly 8:18 a.m., the scheduled arrival of the train, we arrived at St. Gallen.
The train inspector, garbed in a thick jacket, took out his gloves from his side pocket as he made sure all passengers would disembark at St. Gallen station. “It’s supposed to be autumn now. But it looks like it’s cut short. This is like winter weather,” he told me, joking that Swiss precision applies to everything except the weather. At 5 degrees with a generous drizzle, St. Gallen was more than nippy.
This Medieval destination in eastern Switzerland is a compact city sandwiched by Lake Constance and Appenzellerland, a neighboring canton famous for its beer and cheese and an old town lined with Medieval houses. Just outside the train station, St. Gallen started to charm us with centuries- old houses with colorful oriel windows. It’s a traffic-free old town where almost every inhabitant (St. Gallen, with a land area of 39.39 square kilometer, has a population of 160,000) prefers to take the bus or the train because the transportation system works efficiently.
When locals and tourists do not take the public transport, they walk around the historical St. Gallen. Truth is, the old city is conducive for walking. At every turn, your attention will be stolen by a new sight. The centerpiece of the city is the Convent of St. Gall with its Baroque cathedral with the world-famous Abbey Library, where the most beautiful Rococo hall in the whole of Switzerland can be found.
The Abbey Library houses some 150,000 books, many are written in gold ink on parchment paper dating from the 8th to the 11th centuries. The entire Abbey precinct was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
The foundation of the Medieval town of St. Gallen can be traced from the Irish missionary monk Gallus who founded a hermitage in the vicinity around 612. From 747, the St. Gallen monastery was already following the Benedictine rule, which required the contemplative study of books. The religious order was also bent on having a library built in the abbey. (In fact, today, according to our tour guide Christa Nuesch, St. Gallen is known for its business and economics school called the University of St. Gallen.)
In the olden times, what sustained St. Gallen was its textile industry. Its embroidery attracted international recognition and brought prosperity to the town. In fact, there’s a Textile Museum in St. Gallen where, according to our guide, Paris and other homes of fashion could trace the source of their fabrics. There’s even a Textile Trail in the old part of the city that leads to the beautiful old houses that used to be textile spots. Some of these houses have been repurposed to become hotels.
When you get tired of walking around St. Gallen, take a respite at the largest outdoor living room in Switzerland called the City Lounge. It is a modern and eclectic promenade area carved out from the Bleicheli quarters. Many people read books here or watch performances by local artists.
The view of the Swiss Alps is provided majestically when one travels further to the Toggenburg region in the canton of St. Gallen. The vista of a snow- capped mountain jutting from a fertile land is simply stupefying.
Lake Constance is a mere 13 minutes of train ride from St. Gallen. The best is to take the train that leaves at 2:26 p.m. and arrives at Rorschach at 2:39 p.m. The harbor city is known as a mecca for cyclists and inline skaters.
St. Gallen is enthralling. And it is with the distinct Swiss precision that it will take your breath away.