St Gallen

On Monday, the littles and I went with Grandma and Grandpa to St Gallen to see the cathedral and library of the UNESCO listed abbey. Photos were allowed in the church, but not the library. T was happy to spend time in the church. He and I had a contest to see who could count more flying naked babies. The prize was a carrot. T was awesome in there - on his own he decided to hold L's hand and help keep her quiet. The library itself was beautiful and it also displayed many books inlaid with gold and precious stones. The littles weren't interested, though, even when Grandma showed them a real Egyptian mummy. So I took them outside while Grandma and Grandpa looked around. I ended up getting them each a slice of cake at a little cafe in the courtyard. It undid the good of the carrot, but it was nice to sit and relax with them. When Grandma and Grandpa came back down it turned out that we were the ones to keep them waiting while we finished cakes, applied sunscreen, and changed L. Finally we were able to move on and went through a cute part of old town to another church - St Laurenzen - recommended by the tourist office, though we would have noticed its colorful roof anyway.

It doesn't show so well in the photos, but St Laurenzen was bright and colorful. T and L loved the little kinder pew with cushions and books. I think they would have stayed there quietly for quite a while. More churches should do this. It was a friendly seeming church. There was even water and cups in the room with the information about the church. Grandpa noticed a wooden statue of a saint by the door inside the entryway. It had a shovel leaned up against it. There is a patron saint of grave diggers, but this was a snow shovel.

Then we went to the textile museum. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. It made me wonder if we might have missed part of it (other than its library). But we did see an interesting exhibit on the influences between Switzerland and Japan. The best part, which alone was worth going, was the room with dozens of fabric stencils and a video showing how they are used. It is a super complex, slow, and meticulous process. My pictures of the stencils didn't turn out well, but I love them so much I am posting a couple anyway.

The littles were patient for as long as they could be with behaving in churches, a library and museum. We took them to a little playground by the station until it was time for our train.