St. Gallen Cathedral and library

On out roadtrip around the area near the Bodensee we went to Schwitzerland for the first time. We had read that St. Gallen has a really pretty Roman Catholic Cathedral, also referred to as Abbey of Saint Gall. It was pretty easy accessible and there are a lot of different parking houses underground near the center of St. Gallen. When we got there they were builing up some kind of stage just outside the end of the Cathedral, so we couldn't get a proper picture of the it.
Luckly for us we could still get inside!

I felt bad right away because I usually always show respect before going into a Catholic Church and covering up down to my knees as I once was instructed by my grandma and i actually do own a piece of fabric that has the purpose of that, but i simply forgot it and it was 35 degree outside so i was in a small dress. Non of the people working there didn't seem to mind though but I still felt bad about it. But the inside of the Cathedral was amazing! The painting in the ceiling was my favorite. They were kind of gloomy and dramatic even though it should show the goodness of god, but the detailing was incredible.

In the area around the Cathadral is also a monastery we couldn't figure out if it was public and we could go in there. There weren't any natural front door that looked inviting anywhere, that's for sure. But on the other side of the Cathadral was one of my favorite things on this vacation; Abbey library of Saint Gall.

I didn't know much about the library but when i searched and found it on a top 10 list of the most beautiful libraries in the world i just had to see it.
Like everything else in Schwitzerland the ticket price was quite high. It's 12€ for adults but i used my ISIC student card and got a discount. A student ticket is 9€.
You get asked to leave all your belongings outside in small cabinet and you can't take pictures in there, because the blitz can make the ink fade. Therefore the pictures used here is from the internet or a scan of the postcards i got.
When you get to the entrence of the library you are asked to put on some giant slippers to protect the old wooden floors from 1767. All the books in there is protected with grids so you can't touch them but they are all beautful and leather-bound. The overall theme of the books are religion and the middle ages. Some of the books are more tham 1000 years old and a few of them is on display so you can have a little look inside them through the glass.

Though one of the first things you see is a huge globe. It's over two meters tall and really detailed. It's also the only object in the room that doesn't have an english translated sign near it, so i could see what it was. I asked a nice lady that worked there about it and she told me it was a earth and sky globe from 1600 century. It was a copy of the original though because they had the original and borrowed it to the national museum in Zürich and they forgot to give it back. The lady looked so angry while saying it. But she said the copy was much brighter in the colours, so it was easier to see all the details.

Another one that i personally found interesting was a sarcophagus and i mummy. It didn't really fit in the Rococo style of the library and it didn't fit into the theme of the books either. The lady told me it was actually just a random gift that was given to a rich family living in St. Gallen in 1800 century. They later donated it to the library. They don't really know who it is, only that she was a daughter of a priest in the Ancient egypt.

All in all, if you are a bookworm like me and loves libraries, then it's definitely worth a visit.