A Day in St. Louis

March 15

In the morning, we set off for St. Louis. Our first destination was the Gateway Arch. For a very reasonable $7, we found a parking space that was very centrally located.

Despite some construction work around the Gateway Arch, Steffi managed to capture some great snapshots. This is also where we encountered the Mississippi River for the first time.

We continued our way through the city a bit aimlessly, when we stumbled upon the Budweiser Brewery and the adjacent Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

We continued our city tour and came across the Visitor Center. Two older ladies on site willingly provided us with information about the city. With many brochures and a new destination in mind, we left the location.

We picked up our car again, as walking to Forest Park would have taken far too long.

Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the world and can be accessed by car. It also houses several interesting buildings and museums. One of them, the Missouri History Museum, was our next stop.

Parking was free and there was no admission fee. A large part of the exhibits focused on the history of Route 66.

After a short visit to the local souvenir shop, we explored the park a bit more. Luckily, the weather continued to cooperate.

For one last time, Route 66 dominated the day's events, as Steffi wanted to make a detour to the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

The bridge, which crosses the Mississippi, was opened in 1929 and remained in operation as part of Route 66 until 1970. Nowadays, it is only accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. The access to the bridge is quite far off the beaten path. We also seemed to be the only tourists on site. We crossed the bridge halfway, took some pictures of the bend in the bridge, and then headed back.

On our way to Pappy's Smokehouse BBQ, we made a quick stop at Aldi.

When we arrived at Pappy's, Stefan was immediately delighted by the smell of smoke in the air, which could be sensed all the way to the parking lot. Inside the smokehouse, we were greeted by a long line of waiting people. After about 10 minutes, something happened that shouldn't have: Brisket and Ribs were...sold out!

We left the place to find another source of food. Although it wasn't a BBQ restaurant, we ended up at The Sliced Pint to enjoy some beer and very delicious pizza. We also took part in a quiz competition that was taking place there and finished in a safe middle position. How were we supposed to know what 'isosceles triangle' is called in English...

In the late evening, we drove back to the motel and went to bed, as the next day we had a long journey to Cave City, Kentucky ahead of us.

If you're ever in the St. Louis area, you should definitely pay the city a visit. Route 66 enthusiasts will definitely not be able to bypass it!