St. Gallen, Switzerland

St. Gallen, Switzerland 08.2014

The city of St.Gallen with its Abbey District (UNESCO World Heritage site) is the center of eastern Switzerland.  "The tourist destination St.Gallen-Lake Constance contains 32 different municipalities reaching from St.Gallen’s Lake Constance shoreline to the beginning of the rolling foothills of the Alps and the St.Gallen Rhine Valley." A beautiful summer destination where you can enjoy the sun and the Alps :)) A little tip- you might want to book a hotel on the German side of the border, prices tend to be lower than on the Swiss side.  From Konstanz, where we booked our hotel, it takes about an hour with the Sbahn and the ticket costs around 28 Euro for a round trip. You can either switch Sbahn no. S8 in Kreuzlingen for S14 or walk directly to the station and get on S14 to St Gallen. The two cities/countries are not really separated by a custom office or something....you just walk back and forth between two countries. How cool is that? Keine Grenze!  The scenery is really awesome, cows, greeeeeeen, blueee water, just countryside.  I LUV Milka ;))

Have you ever been to St  Gallen ? If you were, what do you think of  their German? isn`t it a bit funny? or maybe it`s just me and the German I`m used to hear in NRW?? :))

Here is the official site of  St. Gallen:

http://www.st.gallen-bodensee.ch/en/region-touring/st-gallen-lake-constance/places/stgallen

and the Swiss Railway official site

http://www.sbb.ch/home.html


And some pictures :))

                                                                   The Post Office

                                                 The Abbey UNESCO World Heritage site

Bruxelle

Bruxelle 2014

Bruxelle is a charming little city with a beautiful UESCO

World Heritage down town and some other sites. It takes a few hours on foot (we walked from the main station Bruxelle -Midi to all the sites , no bus, no cab, no bike) to visit the touristic sites and more. You even have plenty of time to stop for a waffle :)) a local specialty found everywhere in the city!! waffles and Belgian beer , I urge you to try these!! and let`s not forget the Belgian chocolate!  All in all it was a pleasant one day trip. We took the Thalys train that runs daily from Cologne main station to Bruxelle Midi. The ride is pretty short (1h40min -2h), direct and pleasant. If you book you ticket at least 2months in advance, you can take advantage of the reduced fares. The only little inconvenient is that Thalys tickets are not sold at the DB ticket centers anymore, you have to order it online or to go to Thalys Ticket Center in Cologne for example, if you live near. :))) we bought ours on the phone! easy and fast.

Abfahrt um	06h44	08h44	12h44
Ab	65.00 €	65.00 €	65.00 €      Thalys
Reisedauer	01h48	01h48	01h48

Köln Hbf	Fr, 15.08.14	ab	07:43	7	ICE 18
Bruxelles-Midi	Fr, 15.08.14	an	09:35	4

OR you can take the ICE,  a German train that runs daily as well and you can easily buy a ticket at every train station in Germany. They are as fast as Thalys and also safe but most of the times LATE!!!! so be careful when you choose your connections!! leave at least 30minutes in between.

Here are two links to both German Railway and Thalys.com.  I hope you`ll enjoy Bruxelle and share some of your pictures with us ;))))

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml

https://www.thalys.com/de/de/