Day 248 Wed 20 Jun 2007 St Gallen, Switzerland to Salzburg, Austria

In the morning we visit the nearby baroque cathedral of St Gall dedicated to an Irish monk who founded a community here in the 8th century. It’s very ornate and quite different from the ones visited in Italy, set in a square which includes a school and various ecclesiastical buildings. We are taken by the carvings and statues of a bear which St Gall befriended. The bear would fetch firewood and in return St G fed him bread whilst hanging out in the wilderness (actually we think the carvings look more like the bear fetching the rolled up newspaper and St G giving him biscuits). After the cathedral we inspect the medieval library which is housed in a beautiful equally ornate room but rather overfull of tourists shuffling round on the obligatory carpet overslippers. There’s a great collection of ancient maps and books, including C9 illuminated manuscripts which the monks would write. All a bit reminiscent of Hogwarts.

Then its back on the road through pine forests and tunnels, winding our way on Tyrolean mountain roads to St Anton and Innsbruck. Approaching Innsbruck the sky turns black and the heavens open with golf ball sized hail. Just in time we dive into a 5km long tunnel and annoy truck drivers by driving slowly in the hope that it may have stopped when we emerge. It hasn’t so we stop under a bridge watching the lightning. Eventually we move on towards Salzburg cutting across a corner of Germany. (Germany has expensive petrol and expensive toilets and isn’t as tidy as either Switzerland or Austria so we decide not to put its flag on the car).

We reach Salzburg by early evening, find the hotel and park in a carpark burrowed under hill. As we venture out in search of dinner the storm catches up with us so we dive into a nearby beer cellar, where soaking wet we sample its micro brewery output. Fortunately it doesn’t stop raining for a while so we tuck into Weiner schnitzel and sauerkraut before staggering back to the hotel.