We made the six hour drive to St. Louis this morning, arriving around 3 in the afternoon. Of course the first thing you see coming into town is the Gateway Arch. It is visible from at least 10 miles out and is the dominating feature of the city skyline. As we learned later, the land was commissioned by FDR as a National Park and the arch was finally completed in 1965.
So what is the true spirit of St. Louis? That should be obvious. It is Budweiser, of course, and that was our first stop. We took the tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewing plant in St. Louis. It was their first plant and remains a major brewery with 15 different kind of beer brewed there today. It is also home to the Clydesdales stable, which is the first stop on the tour. After the tour, we visited the hospitality room to sample some of the products. We only tried specialty beers and the Wild Blue (based on blueberries) and the Pumpkin Spice beers were really not very good, but we liked the Shock Top Belgian White.
We then took a driving tour of the city and saw most the key spots: Busch Stadium, the old Courthouse (famous for the Dred Scott decision), the City Museum, Saint Louis University, the St. Louis Cathedral and Forest Park. Forest Park was home of the 1904 World’s Fair and today a huge city park and home to the zoo, the art museum and the a lot of open space. The only disappointment was the barbeque for dinner. I had found a recommendation from a guide book that turned out to be in a not-so-good neighborhood and the ribs were tough, which is a no-no for me.
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