New Years and St Gallen

On new years eve I headed out to Luzern for a Swiss get-together. We started off eating Raclette - a traditional swiss dish. There was a heater in the middle of the table and we all had little trays. We put the cheese in the tray, put in some extras like meat, onions, salsa etc (that's not traditional) and heat the cheese until it melts. Then pour it over potatoes.

It was very tasty but very heavy and I really enjoyed the meal! Afterwards we headed out for a midnight hike.

For me, that's when the evening started to go downhill. You see I hate New Years Eve. You're supposed to stay up late and party and be all excited but 9 times out of 10 the evening is rather boring, you're full of crappy food and alcohol, struggling to stay awake and trying to force small talk with drunk people. My standard for new years eve is unless things are really exciting, I go to bed at 12:10am, or sometimes even early. Then on new years day I can go skiing and have the mountain to myself. Now that's a celebration.

Instead, we hiked up mount Pilatus for about 1.5 hours. We had a full moon, in fact, at around 8:20 that evening we even had a partial eclipse which was pretty special. Anyway, with the full moon we could easily see where we were going. We hiked up, and because Switzerland is so populated most of the hike was on the road or paths between switchbacks. We stopped when we had a great view of Luzern. The heavy cheese and wine at this point was not helping the cause and I was feeling pretty left out because all the jokes were in Swiss German.

At the lookout we made a fire and I had stopped eating and drinking. Mount Pilatus floated above us and you could hear alpine horns echoing through the hills. That was pretty special. At midnight all these fireworks went off in the town below and all the church bells were ringing. It was worth seeing. Once. Man did I feel horrible. I am planning my festivities for next year. If there aren't exciting plans afoot it will involve having a lovely dinner, maybe playing board games and watching some tv.

The next morning, despite only having had 3.5 hours of sleep, I was awake at 7:30. That's another reason I don't like staying up late - I just cannot sleep in. Later that day Andrea and I headed out to St. Gallen to see the church. Since we both have rail passes we can ride halfway across the country on a whim.

The church and associated abbey are a UNESCO world heritage site and with good reason, it was fantastic!! It would have stood out even in Rome.

The abbey houses one of the worlds oldest libraries and was sadly closed. Oh well, a reason to come back.