Night at the Museum!

So, what has been happening in Swizzy land over the past week.

First on Thursday we had a corridor meal at the halls of residence where I'm staying, which was really cool. Our resident Italian, Nicola cooked us spaghetti, he went a bit overboard on quantities and was pushing third helping on everyone, but it tasted amazing. Then we had some awesome chocolate fondant cake, which was prepared by one of the French girls on the floor. I am really jealous of her cooking skills! We chatted, and then managed a couple of rounds of bowling in the halls' very own bowling alley (that would be gloating except it is really old, and more like skittels than bowling)!
Then on Friday night I headed to St. Gallen, which is to the East of Switzerland, and near the Bodensee, which is also known as Lake Constance. The hostel I stayed in was comfy and relaxing. I got to the hostel around 7.30pm and after checking in and dumping my stuff, headed to a local restaurant, and had a nice meal and afterwards a chat with one of the waitresses, who gave me tips of where to go on the Bodensee. The next day I headed off to the German city of Constance, and then hopped on a boat to the picturesque town of Meersburg, which has its lovely cobbled streets and a beautiful castle dating from the Middle Ages. When I arrived back in St.Gallen I was wandering around the streets and reached the old Monastery complex, which has become an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was hosting a Museum Night, and I paid 20 francs, which got me entry into all the museums throughout the night. The cathedral at the heart of the complex was very impressive, and is according to my guidebook at least, a terrific example of classic Swiss baroque architecture. I was most impressed by the Stiftsbibliothek, which is the library of the monastery, which was amazing. I had to wear some very large slippers to go in, as it's all wooden and they need to protect the floorboards. There were so many books and it seems really fitting all these incredibly old and invaluable manuscripts were housed in such a magnificent place (I am definitely turning into my dad)! You couldn't take photographs but I didn't think I'd have been able to do it justice, so was quite happy to settle for buying a postcard as a momento.
From the Stiftbibliothek I headed to St. Leonards' Kirche (that's a church) and was able to climb the bell tower to get a good view of St. Gallen before the sunset. I managed to get up and down in time to avoid the hourly striking of the bells of the tower. Looking out from the tower it seemed to me St. Gallen is a city full of churches and they each have their own bell towers which seem to dominate the skyline. I suppose that's hardly surprising considering that the city was founded by an Irish monk called Gallus in the Middle Ages.
I then headed to the textile museum, which for some strange reason had a fencing (sword play not garden fencing) exhibition taking place outside it, which was good fun to watch. There were also food stands outside all the museums, and by the cathedral I had a Bratwurst and a banana and nutella crepe at the textile museum, which tasted awesome. Headed back to the hostel and then returned to Basel on Sunday morning, as museum night had allowed me to visit all the places I'd meant to save for Sunday. Then it was back to the grindstone as usual Monday morning.

Keep in touch, thinking of all of you,

Love,

Swizzy x x x