St Gallen knows how a museum should be. The History and Ethnology Museum, in the City Park is a model of how a museum should look, be curated and be run. Wheeling A we decided to go for the disabled entrance where we were met by a woman who offered to show us in, we made our way to the entrance proper where we paid and dumped the pram and stuff in a corner (on the advice of the counter staff member - how unbelievably chilled) of this pristine building. We made our way up to the attic/mezzanine space which was set up for kids and celebrating childhood across the ages - a really well thought out area with loads for kids of all ages to do and explore - from spinning tops and traditional games to shadow puppets and a hand puppet theater, I could have stayed there all day. The other floors were equally well thought out with sections on the history of St Gallen, traditional dress and crafts, and a section on world ethnography (see photo) which had loads more interesting stuff than I was expecting, from Incan statues to samurai swords. Amazing. Will be checking out the Art museum soon, after seeing this I can't wait.Two other things I have noticed. The first and most telling is something you can try. Walk down the street in a UK town or city centre. Do you feel like you are being watched? Do you have an odd feeling in the back of your mind? This is entirely absent here because there are (virtually) no CCTV cameras. It is really odd to think that in the UK we have all become so used to their insidious spread that we can't imagine life without the speed cameras, shoplifting store cctv, Council littering cams and London's 'ring of steel' or whatever it is called. Well here it can be imagined and it is liberating - a weight lifted. Smash the cams!
The second thing is I have noticed several well maintained public phone boxes, that are not only not used as urinals or for call girl cards but are actually used by people to make calls. This can only mean a couple of things: Not everyone in Switzerland owns a mobile phone, and public phone boxes here are reliable and worth using. Amazing as in the UK the mobile phone companies have such a hold over the UK population that people believe that not giving their child the latest mobile phone is a form of child abuse.
