Full Circle

Let it not be said that I don't occasionally follow through with haphazard crap I type on the internet....and I quote:

" I'm reasonably certain I could jog around the circumference of this "Dorf" in well under an hour (might try that later now that I think about it.)."

To wit:  Circumference of Amriswil

Unfortunately, when I quick-mapped it earlier, I wasn't zoomed in enough to catch the switch-backs at the 3.5 mile marker.  Running up that hill really sucked, so you better believe I was going to take a picture from the top once I got there.  I present the "skyline" of the greater Amriswil metropolitan area:

Also, I'm not sure it was "well under" and hour, but it was less than an hour.

Anyhow, moving right along.

Doing as the trip adviser sites suggested, I went back to St. Gallen yesterday afternoon (or "Sankt Gallen" if you're typing it into a GPS device, as that's how the Swiss spell "Saint").  It's an interesting town of sorts.  Slightly smaller in population than Knoxville I can, regardless, draw some interesting comparisons.  Both are somewhat hilly in parts.  Both have a modern business district and an "old city" area (Grant it, "old" is a relative term here as usual).  Both also sit sort-of in a valley.  The ratio is a bit different.  St. Gallen's "old city" is a pretty significant portion of the land-area of the city, vs. the few blocks of Knoxville that area actually well-kept these days. 

 There are, as usual, some large Cathedrals to see in St. Gallen, as well as some other interesting architecture and interesting art projects, the origins of which I have yet to look up the explanations for.  The red, rubber-coated sections, for instance.

I spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the city and it was interesting, but something kept nagging at me that I didn't put my finger on until someone mentioned something about living in Switzerland during a dinner conversation.

The old-city areas are clean....too clean.  I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, or to imply that I'd prefer trash and hobos everywhere, but it's more a lack of "character".  It's so well kept, it almost looks staged.  Yes, you can look closely and tell that the Bauhaus buildings are actually old construction with real wood beams, etc.  Yes, a history book can tell me that the Cathedral was built in the 1700s, but it all seemed a little...."sterile"; is that the word I'm looking for?

I'm sure if I hadn't already been to Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Adenau I would have been utterly impressed with it.  However it's clear, in those other two towns, that people still live & work in their original-construction 400-year-old buildings, they are still well, kept, but functionally-so, as opposed to being deliberately preserved by a municipality. 

Oh well, that's enough critique.  My looking around St.Gallen was mainly a time-killing exercise.  Being a University town, St. Gallen has a pretty good number of restaurants and other establishments in which one can sit and enjoy the evening.  So around 8:30 or so, I met some friends and we went around a few places.  It was nice, in a way.  I wore a pretty "loud" shirt just because it was clean and had a collar, but it didn't matter.  No one was looking at me, I promise.

That's Sara, and Sara (pronounced "Zara").  Valeria also joined us again later.  Let me say, people-watching with three fashionistas is pretty hilarious.  In hindsight, I probably should have taken the opportunity to make my own impromptu episode of "what-not-to-wear".  I might have come back looking sophisticated or something.

Anyhow, I think that's a good place to leave Switzerland for now.  It's been real.

Back to Germany this afternoon I think and then off to Munich tomorrow.