City is alive with St. Gallen Festival

August 17, 2019

A rest day to explore St. Gallen (on feet)

It is always nice to plan a rest day into a tour. Radweg Reisen, my tour provider, had done so in St. Gallen. I arrived last night and after a quick clean-up, headed off to explore the city. St. Gallen Festival was in high gear. Old Town was alive with many bands and DJs. The streets were lined with international food booths. It's a good time to have a spare day in a city.

This morning began with the typical European hotel breakfast. Hotel Metropol's selections were quite nice, the staff polite, and the decor beautiful. Tomorrow morning I am going to take a photo of their breakfast "buffet". I know many of friends and family have not been to Europe and need to see the difference from the American hotel breakfast. There are no waffle or automated pancake machines.

Farmer markets are full of the fruits, vegetables and berries we have cycled past this week

My companions and I opted to explore the city, mostly the Old Town section. The Collegiate Church and Monastery Library were first up. This is another "must-do" for cyclotourists passing through St. Gallen. Impressive architecture. Unfortunately, no photos were permitted in the monastery library. It very closely resembles the monastery library I toured in Prague on my Czech Southern Bohemia tour.

All those Swiss chocolates look so sweet!

The day passed fast wandering the streets. I came across Swiss chocolatiers. The prices seemed high, but I suspect that is for everything in Switzerland. I plan on bringing chocolate home as souvenirs to my family and friends. I will have another week in Switzerland to make my selections.
Lunch was at a street corner wurst-to-go place I spotted last night. The prices were reasonable for Switzerland. I had a schnitzel sandwich, potato salad, and water for 11 Euros. It was very tasty.

Food and shopping is plentiful In St Gallen's Old Town

I wandered some more and window shopped. I was looking for a pair of sunglasses since mine was a causally from yesterday's bike mishap. None were to be found. I headed back for a short afternoon nap before dinner.

Spend some time listening to this pretty good Austrian band

Spent the evening at St Gallen Fest. Quite a selection of International Food booths line the old town streets. I chose a Vietnamese chicken curry. It was pretty good. I walked around and listened to some of the bands. I also scouted the street out of St Gallen tomorrow.

The police station in Old Town had a pretty neat display window

Tomorrow is the last day of cycling the Lake Constance tour. I am headed back to Konstanz, Germany. I am not sure of how many hills I will encounter tomorrow. Since it was hilly coming into the city, it will most likely be hilly heading out.

The steeple of the Collegiate Church of Saint Gallen

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