Meet Me In St Louis

300 miles ago we arrived in St Louis and once again eagle eyed Joel was the first to see this particular regions local land mark first, the fabulous Gateway Arch.

St Louis was a sight for sore eyes, mainly because when we both checked the map the previous evening in Chicago we had both read St Louis as being only 183 miles away. It wasn't. Our kindly GPS, which I have named Thomas, told us it was closer to 300 and about a 5 hour drive. This meant that while the other person was driving, the passenger got a little shut-eye because our first real leg of Route 66 was a featureless flat wasteland something akin to Cambridge - not the City of course, that's beautiful. The surrounding areas, you know fields, trees, bushes... the horizon... no hills. Yeah you get the idea. Now imagine that with a couple of 'Roman stylee' straight roads and it's like playing a real live version of 'Outrun'.

Needless to say the drive got a whole lot more interesting when we hit the torrential downpour as shown in the video in the previous post. Now that was some scary stuff. Luckily we got through it, because rain ain't no thing to real Brits. Joel clocked the Gateway Arch as the sun beamed through the clouds like a sign from god and we knew it was going to be all good.

We checked into the most expensive hotel of our trip so far. The Hyatt at Union Station was sheer decadance. Created from, as the name implies, the old main station at St Louis. The lobby was gigantic and a swear I have never seen so much marble dedicated to one building in my entire life. The flipside of the good looking hotel was the hilarity that ensued upon checking out the toilet in our room.

Not only could you conduct conference calling from the comfort of the can but the dang thing had an ethernet port for those types who just couldn't stay off the interweb. Or maybe it was for fat yanks who somehow got stuck there and needed to call a porter to wheel them out.. I just don't know.





After our unexpectedly long drive we had a nice little walk down Market St. into downtown St Louis to get a better look at this little arch thing. Needless to say this was one impressive piece of engineering and a fitting monument to commemorate Lewis & Clark's expedition to the west.


That night as Joel mentioned we had a few drinks to celebrate... Err.... Thursday. At $1 each we had quite a few, ok we had a lot. Then we found a club called Buca and listened to Hip-Hop and Drum and Bass. Which neither of us particularly liked, so we headed back to the hotel.

JULY the 4th came and we headed to breakfast as I loaded my plate up with bacon and eggs I was beginning to feel decidedly unwell, and left breakfast uneaten and Joel sucking down coffee. Having a little sleep I woke up to see Joel had found the latest episodes of Doctor Who online and was catching up with the latest David Tennant adventures. And such was the July 4th parade for us! We made up for our late day by doing the American thing and going to see Hancock at the local movie theatre and came back to the most fantastic fireworks show we had seen since Wednesday.

The next morning we got up ludicrously early (not hungover) and ventured back to the Gateway Arch to ride the tiny little trams up to the top to check out St Louis from over 600 feet inside a giant tringular sardine can. Classic claustrophobia for some but a glorious view for us.


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Now playing: Train - Mississippi
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ST LOUIS HERE

Sweet Home Chicago

Chicago, Illinois - we came, we saw - we frickin' loved it!!!

After the flat, un-impressive views of the drive up through Indiana, we knew The Windy City had to be something special in order to re-ignite our energies. As we drove up the Interstate toward the city, we already became suitably impressed with what we saw before us.

We check into the Days Inn - Lincoln Park-North, and almost immediatly headed into the city on the number 151 bus, which took us down Michigan Ave, which is pretty much the central hub to all the sights in the city. Almost immediatly you could tell that this is a city unlike any you'd find in Europe. It was clean, well-organised, and despite it's modern-feel, really rather beautiful. Tall skyscrapers reached high up to the few clouds that were dotted in the sky above. And with Lake Michigan to one side of us, Chicago ebbed a beauty I had not seen in a city before. We wandered around the streets, underneath the El-trains rattling above us, and felt very much at home. Stopping off for a beer in The Berghoff (on W Adam's Street!), we soon discovered the water taxi's near Adam's St Bridge. It took us from just underneath the Sears Tower back toward Michigan Ave, where we took in another drink by the river before heading back to our hotel for a quick change, before we headed out to the bars along Division, where we sampled some very Irish bars.

The next day we headed back into the main Loop, and headed straight for Sears Tower (on the Water Taxi again), and made it our mission to head to the SkyDeck at the very top of the world's second tallest building. Here's Adam talking about the great view.


After the tower we took a wander to Grant Park, where we stumbled across the Taste of Chicago food festival, and sampled some proper Chicago-style Hot-Dogs. We had only a few food tickets, so Adam had to make-do with a sample portion of ice-cream - which ended up being about as big as his head.

Through Millenium Park we wandered next, which apparantly took four years too long to build (see it's not just the Brits that build things that become overdue), but was worth the wait, with some breathtaking architecture dotted around some well-trimmed lawns. Adam then decided it was time to visit Lincoln Park Zoo, which I took as an opportunity to head back the hotel room to catch up on the sleep I'd been missing out on due to his constant snoring!! He jumped off the bus in Lincoln Park, and went and took some photos of some animals looking decidedly miserable in their caged environment. Needless to say it made him feel rather down seeing them in that state, and he came back to the hotel shortly.

In the evening we headed to Navy Pier for some good American food (again) and an added bonus of a massive fireworks display over Lake Michigan. "What was that in aid of?" I here you ask. Beats us. Think they were celebrating because it was a Wednesday or something. Only in America. It won't be the last of the fireworks we'll see on this trip, as we're off to St Louis now, where we'll be spending 4th July!!!



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Now playing: The Blues Brothers - Sweet Home Chicago
via FoxyTunes

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM CHICAGO HERE