Big River, Big Gate
Before leaving St. Louis for the last, 500+ miles trip of this years vacation, we were spending a day in town. When we got up that morning, three things were on the program. A visit to Gateway Arch, a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi and a visit to Union Station. But unfortunately it did not turn out that way. When we searched the internet for departure times for riverboat cruises, we discovered that all cruises were cancelled due to high water levels in the river, and it was supposed to last for at least another week.
We
therefore decided to walk to The Arch and then decide what to do. From the hotel
to The Arch was around 0.8 miles, including a detour due to roadworks. We left
the hotel at 9 am, to get there before to many others showed up, and that
should prove to be a good decision. When we got there a few people stood in line
to get through security. We got through rather quickly and even if Tim was
annoyed that he had to remove his belt, we managed. When security was cleared,
Tim headed for the restroom. He had to take off his shorts in order to replace
the belt, thus his annoyance of having to remove it in the first place. While he did that, I bought
tickets, and we were allowed in at 10.10. At this time it was only 9.25, so
there was some time to spend.
The Gateway Arch is a memorial to USA's expansion to the west after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Many westbound travellers started out from St. Louis, making the city known as The Gateway to the West, and this is what the 610 feet tall Arch symbolizes. Below The Arch is the ticket office, souvenir shop and a Museum of Westward Expansion, so when Tim returned, shorts and belt on, we spent some time looking at the museum. I especially enjoyed reading the extracts from William Clarks diary from the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark Expedition. Clark's creative ways of spelling is very entertaining. On the same page, he could spell the same word in 4 or 5 different ways.
After a while it became our turn to go up to The Arch in the little 8-cabin tram. Each cabin holds five people, and when two of them has the size of Tim and me, there is not much room left for the remaining three, but we managed anyway. The ascend lasts only four minutes, and you have to walk stairs for the last few feet. From the platform, you can see far on a clear day. Unfortunately this was not a clear day, but we enjoyed the view nonetheless. Looking west you have a great view of town, and looking east you can enjoy barges on the river, and views of Illinois and East St. Louis. We enjoyed the views for awhile, then took the tram once more, back to ground level. Before leaving, Tim asked at the information desk for the easiest way to get to Union Station. When we left The Arch, there was a line of people almost 500 feet long, waiting to get in, so we were glad, that we had arrived early.
The Arch is on a bluff next to the river, so before leaving the area, we walked down to see the high water level for ourselves, and it became easy understandable, why river cruises were not an option, as the walkboards from shore to the boats were for the most completely under water. The lady behind the information desk, had told us, that the easiest way to get to Union Station would be to walk to the old courthouse, and catch a bus from there. The Old Courthouse (today a museum) is only half a mile from The Arch so it was an easy walk. Unfortunately we were not able to locate any busstops, or at least not any, that annouced a bus going to Union Station, so we decided to walk out there.
As
it was a very hot day with temperatures around 90 already around 11 pm, we
bought us some bottled water before taking off. Along the way we passed a few
fountains, one them with children cooling themselves, while their parents watched
from a short distance. We also passed the town hall, three active courthouses and
the opera house, before getting to Union Staion. Today the stations is a
shopping mall, but we were greatly disappointed, when we got there. When Dorte
and I visited 10 years earlier, it was a lively place, with lots of people,
shops and restaurants. This time though, there were almost nobody there. Most of
the shops were closed and the rooms left empty. In the food court on the top
level, the same was the case. Only a few food places were open, and a lot
stood empty. As it was now around 12.30 we decided to have something to eat
anyway though, and we each bought a sandwich at a Subway. Having eaten that, we
moved on to see if we could find somewhere to get Tim some St. Louis Rams
merchandise. The shop where Dorte and I bought mechandise 10 years earlier had
disappeared, but we found a shop the sold sporting goods, including a small
selection of merchandise, so he managed to get some caps for himself and
a friend back home, who is also a Rams fan.
We decideed to take the Metro Link (a light railway) back to downtown, and from the station on Eight and Pine, we walked back to the hotel. Here we relaxed for a couple of hours, and around 6 pm we left to have something to eat. Before dinner though, we decided to take a ride in a horse carriage. The prizes had gone up quite a bit in the 10 years since my last visit. Then we paid $ 45 for an hour ride; this time the prize was $ 50 for half an hour. We enjoyed the trip with Lacy (driver) and Dollar (horse) though, and when we returned we decided to have dinner at Caleco's a sportsbar, that were filled up with Cardinals fans, preparing themselves for the evenings game against Pittsburg Pirates. It appeared, that Tim and I were almost the only ones at the place, not dressed in red. The food was good though, and when we had finished eating, almost everybody else had left to go to the game. We returned to our room and watched the game on television. We continued to watch Cardinals' games for the rest of the vacation whenever it was on any available channel, in our hotels. I have almost become a Cardinals fan, even if I still don't understand much of what baseball is all about.