From Thursday, July 17th to Friday, July 25th, I took a 9-day, 7-night trip using Swiss trains to visit four places: St. Gallen, Engelberg, Interlaken, and Bern. I also took a trip using Swiss trains in August 2023 (A Swiss train journey in August 2023. – 旅好き爺の旅行記 ), so this is the second installment.

On this trip, I traveled from Zurich Airport to St. Gallen and took tourist trains such as the Voralpen Express, Lucerne-Engelberg Express, and Lucerne- Interlaken Express to enjoy the magnificent scenery of the World Heritage sites of St. Gallen, the old town of Bern, and the Swiss Alps, including Mount Titlis and the Jungfraujoch.

The reason for this trip was that I saw an article on Agora, a website published by JAL, that featured the Abbey Library of St. Gall, a World Heritage Site, so I decided to make St. Gallen my first stop, so I’d like to introduce it to you first.

July 17th (Thr)
Flight JL047 departed Haneda Airport at 07:50 and arrived at Helsinki Airport at 14:45, earlier than scheduled. As the plain approached Helsinki, we were greeted by the snow-capped mountains of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Flight JL6845 (a codeshare flight with Finnair) departed Helsinki Airport at 16:30 and arrived at Zurich Airport at 18:00. Finnair had a labor union strike scheduled until July, but the strike had already been resolved and I was able to arrive without any problems.

I bought some sandwiches and drinks at COOP near Zurich Airport Station, and took the IC5 intercity express train, which departed at 19:13, arriving at St. Gallen Station at 20:02. Just like last time, Swiss trains are on time. This time, I stayed at Hotel Walhalla, which is just a few minutes’ walk from the station. As soon as I got off the train, the hotel was right in front of me.

It was a long journey, so I took a bath and went to bed straight away.

July 18th（Fri）
After breakfast at the hotel, I headed straight to the old town. The square where the GLOBUS department store is located at the entrance to the old town was deserted, probably because it was early in the morning.

First, I headed to the Muhleggbahn cable car station to get a view of the whole town, with a small valley next to it.

It is more like a diagonal elevator than a cable car and operates unmanned.

I got off at the upper station and walked up the promenade to a place overlooking the town. I could see the spires of the churches in the old town.

If you look to the right, you can see Lake Constance in the distance, which is located on the border between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

I took the cable car back down and headed for a walk around the old town. There are many buildings with bay windows, and apparently there are 111 carved bay windows in the old town.

My main destination this time was the Abbey Library of St. Gall, but it only opens at 10:00, so I went to see the Abbey of St. Gall first. The current building is a Baroque style building built in the 18th century, but the interior decoration is also magnificent and worth seeing. The origin of this monastery is a historic monastery, a retreat established in 613 by St. Gallus, who came from Ireland. The monastery and its attached library were registered as a World Heritage Site in 1983.

It was past 10:00, so I headed to the affiliated library. The admission fee (CHF 18) was free with a Swiss Travel Pass. At the entrance, there were large slippers to wear over shoes to protect the building.

I had heard that the museum has a collection of 170,000 books and that they are still open to the public, so I thought it would be much larger, but it was actually a relatively compact space. However, the interior decoration was magnificent, and it was easy to see why it is considered one of the most beautiful art museums in the world.

There was also an exhibition in the basement of the building, which related to the history of St. Gallus and the monastery.

There is also an exhibition about the history of the monastery in the building opposite after leaving this building.

Near the monastery is the Neo-Gothic Reformed Church, St. Laurenzen, built in 1850. The stained glass windows inside are also magnificent.

There are many restaurants in the old town, so I had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then went to the Textile Museum.

The ticket is also stylishly made of cloth. By the way, the ticket price of CHF 12 is free with a Swiss Travel Pass.

St. Gallen has long been a town that has thrived in the textile and weaving industry, and in 1878 it established a museum with a collection of precious patterns, designs, lace, and textiles.

Artistic works are also on display.

The old town of St. Gallen can be explored on foot in a day and is a lovely historic town. Tomorrow I head to Engelberg, the base for sightseeing on Mount Titlis.