Munich to St Gallen Days 16 - 22

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Hi All,

So a long time between posts but we've been having a holiday withtin a holiday during our time in Switzerland staying with Evi and being spoilt rotten.

On our second last day in Munich we meet up with Holly's relatives Pepi and Lily and also Pepi's brotre Rolf and his wife Heidi. They were nice enough to pick us up from the station then take us to there house before treating us to a proper Bavarian dinner. The night was really nice and we also so logged some time on the Autobahn! We ending up kicking on late into the evening before returning to our hostel and organising to meet the following morning.

As we organised Pepi picked us up near our hotel in the morning to give us a whirlwind drive by tour of Munich before our afternoon train to Switzerland. We saw the Olympic Park and had a look around as well as seeing an interactive BMW exhibit. This was quite interesting but we were pressed for time so we didn't hang around to long. Next stop was a quick look at the Nymphenberg Castle about 6km outside Munich. This was also a very brief stop but because it was cold it suited us. The timing worked out perfectly for us to catch our afternoon train and off we went to St Gallen. Evi was nice enough to pick us up from the station so we got another quick driven tour of the St Gallen area before heading of to Evi and Christian's house. The rest of the night was spent having delicious dinner and meeting more of the family.

The following morning Evi drove us to the Appenzellar chesse factory and which was interesting, giant cheese storage included. There was a museum of traditional swiss folk art next door which we also looked at and it made Holly yearn for giant cow bells. After this we had a quick look at a church in the local area which was fairly original. We went to the the Appenzellar township after this and had some delicious cakes and coffee before heading home. After returning home Holly went with Evi to pick up her daughter Cassandra while I remained to plan some trains. The remainder of the day was spent lounging around and relaxing (a common theme in St Gallen) ahead of our week and a bit flat out in Austria and Italy.

The following morning we went to the top of a nearby mountain with Evi and Cassandra to see if we could see Mt Santis and some of the Alps. We pretty much lucked out with the mist the entire trip so there wasn't much to see. Instead we just got more delicious cakes and coffee. Because we couldn't see Lake Constance from the mountain due to the mist, we drove down to the lake instead. We had a nice casual stroll along the shore and we even managed to get some sunshine. General relaxing ensued for the rest of the day.

We went early the next morning to Mt Santis to avoid the queues of people taking the cable car (other option was a 1200m high hike up the mountain 😊 and we luck out again with the mist so we didn't get a good view but atleast it was freezing cold and we got our first snow. We did have a good time though and very much enjoyed the swinging of the cabel car in the wind. We did also see some of our first real snow in Switzerland so that was a big bonus. That turned out to continue for the rest of the day which meant that by the time we finished relaxing for the rest of the day there was atleast a light cover of snow.

The next morning it turned out that it had snowed quite alot over night so we got to build a snow man and run around throwing snow balls at each other for a while. I think we were the only people outside enjoying it because all the other Swiss people were really annoyed that it had snowed. Once we had enough of being quite cold we jumped a bus into St Gallen and had a look around. We saw most of the main sights and it was very nice including the heavy snow that happened in the middle of looking around. That was about it for the day, we returned home later in the evening as were spoilt to more cheese and cakes and other delicous swiss food.

On our final day it again snowed overnight so we played around in the morning after a nice long sleep in. We built a much bigger snow man, but we still haven't quite got the hang of making the head, so it just tapered off. We went for a walk in a snowy forest which was behing Evi house and got to see everything covered in snow which was really beautiful. At the end of the day we said our goodbyes and thank yous and got on a bus for St Gallen. Heading of to Vienna tonight on an overnight train. Everything for the rest of trip is organised so we will be heading straight to Florence after Vienna and staying for 3 days with a side trip to Venice. Then Rome to finish up our trip before our final train back to Paris. Should be a couple of exicting entries coming up as we kick back into sight seeing mode.

Till tomorrow
Nick and Holly.

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