Home base: Zurich

Image: Google Maps

St. Gallen is another town near Zurich easily traveled by train. One of the world’s oldest libraries, containing unique, early medieval writings, is located in St. Gallen.  With a collection of 170,000 books from a period of over 1,000 years, the Abbey Library was named a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1983. Built between 1755 and 1767, the library had belonged at one time to an abbey founded in 719. A few years later, the Benedictine order of monks became residents in 747. The monastery flourished from the 9^th to 11^th centuries, as an influential cultural and scientific center of the West. Today, the Benedictines are gone, and the monastery has long since been dissolved. Yet the Abbey Library remains as a significant educational institution from the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, no picture-taking was allowed inside the library.

The abbey complex

Other sights in St. Gallen

After spending the morning at St. Gallen, we returned to Zurich to enjoy more sights.

We began the evening with a cruise. This time from Bürkliplatz, located on the other end the city, on Lake Zurich.