Some Arch shots:
Inside, there's not a tour per se. There's a little holding area where you learn facts about the Arch & play trivia while you wait for your ride to the top. It has a cutesy, retro 60s vibe (the Arch was built in the 60s).
Tram door:
View from the top. Downtown St. Louis on one side, Mississippi River on the other:
Sculpture of the men who helped to bring the Arch to fruition:
After leaving the Arch, I took the approximately 1.5 mile walk to City Museum (more on that in a moment). This walk took me through part of downtown St. Louis, which had some truly lovely parks that seemed on the newer side. There were also great sculptures.
Some of those sculptures:
I'm a sucker for architecture, particularly of the neo-classical style, so here are some city shots:
Eventually, I found myself at City Museum. It's a place that almost defies description. I've been telling people, "It's like a giant jungle gym made out of found materials. And there's caves. And tunnels. And a Ferris wheel on the roof." Perhaps just check out the website.
Approaching the museum, I walked along this cool fence:
And laughed out loud when I found this at the end:
Views from the roof (yes, I did climb up the tower you can see in shot #2):
Views from the rooftop Ferris wheel (yes, I did climb the ramp that leads to the praying mantis in pic #2):
Inside, cool tile work:
One of many aquariums:
Part of the 10-story spiral slide, which I went down. It was fun as all get out:
Organ, which did get some play:
Funky ceiling:
It was a Saturday afternoon. The place was packed and LOUD. So I didn't stay long, but I had a great time while I was there. After leaving, I headed over to the botanical garden, which will be covered in my final post next week.
2 comments:
Now I want to visit St. Louis, just to go to that museum! It looks amazing. The pro tips on the website alone would have sold me.
St. Louis looks like a pretty town. Were you selectively taking photos of the buildings (meaning, did they do that urban renewal thing where they destroyed their downtown) or is it uniformly pretty?
I would say it's uniformly pretty in that it still has a lot of old architecture. However, it suffers from a great deal of urban blight. In particular, I saw quite a few neighborhoods of stunning brownstones that were rundown, and it was easy to wander from an area that seemed safe and nice into one that seemed unsafe. I gathered that it was a town in transition, in the early stages of revitalization.
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