My sleep patterns are all over the place, by about 23:00 I’m wrecked and I wake up at 06:00, which is OK because it means I can get my part of the blog up to date, Willy is writing his down and it will be transferred asap. After another wonderful breakfast – thank you again Robin. We went to a nearby shopping mall/centre or whatever, not one enclosed area but a vast village of big shops, one of which I know Dee8 would love, ‘Party America’ a humungous store dedicated to party decorations. We are trying to solve two problems – Willy’s camera has blocked and refuses to take photos and it is a serious camera when it does decide to work, the photos that appear are with my trusty Olympus – one of the best presents I ever got – though it has some technical shortcomings, but hey. The other problem is that we haven’t been able to connect to the Internet, my wifi card seems to work but then it won’t open mail or pages. I have spoken to some technicians and they don’t know how to explain it. A fairly global answer. We stopped by a coffee shop with wifi and lo and behold, after some tinkering around it started working. Today’s plan is to visit the Anhauser Busch brewery in town. It is the second largest brewery in the world and has just been taken over by Stella Artois or whoever makes that wife beating juice. The Busch family have been very benevolent to the people of St Louis, donating money to all sorts of projects and treating their employees very well, the big worry is what will happen now. Anyway, we went to the brewery and it is a showcase. I’ve visited several breweries in my constant search for the perfect beer and they are all working establishments, the smells, sights and sounds are the same wonderful sensual experiences (OK, so I don’t have to do a ten hour shift there), but this place still retains the original architecture, beautiful brickwork, wrought iron railings, colourful tiles all contrasted with the gleaming high-tech stainless steel vats, tubes, piping, valves and gauges..
Of course the big stars of the show are the enormous Clydesdale draft horses that appear in the Christmas TV ads. They are huge and are treated like football stars – no that does not mean they cheat on their wives, have a drink problem or abscond to Ibiza with a lap dancer. There are also two docile Dalmations who are part of the team. Apparently it was their job to scare away other dogs, small children or rats that might have got in the way of this particular wagon train.
Off to the hospitality suite for our complimentary two glasses of brew, in our case a ‘bock’, very tasty and indeed tasting of more. Hunger was making its presence felt so we headed off to an Irish bar on Washington Street called ‘Tigín’ (Little house in Gaelic) of course there was nothing little about it. A brand new (8 months) bar with all the high-tech trappings and little or no soul, not like Mc Gurks, but it was drawing a crowd and I’m sure will carve it’s niche. We had some burgers, they DO know how to make good burgers and Pat had a spectacular salad, definitely the best call. Then it was time to visit the ‘Arch’. This massive stainless steel arch dominates the city and symbolises (though not it’s original intention) the line between the ‘Old’ East and the ‘New’ West, this was where the settlers passed through on the various routes west in search of a new life, gold and a decent Marguerita. I took the teeny little tram, more like a pod, to the top. There was no sensation of height as you don’t see any thing on the way up and at the top it’s totally enclosed, rather like what I imagine the gondola on an airship is like, but it is an excellent view over the city and the mighty Mississippi. Back to base and some serious sofa.
Of course the big stars of the show are the enormous Clydesdale draft horses that appear in the Christmas TV ads. They are huge and are treated like football stars – no that does not mean they cheat on their wives, have a drink problem or abscond to Ibiza with a lap dancer. There are also two docile Dalmations who are part of the team. Apparently it was their job to scare away other dogs, small children or rats that might have got in the way of this particular wagon train.
Off to the hospitality suite for our complimentary two glasses of brew, in our case a ‘bock’, very tasty and indeed tasting of more. Hunger was making its presence felt so we headed off to an Irish bar on Washington Street called ‘Tigín’ (Little house in Gaelic) of course there was nothing little about it. A brand new (8 months) bar with all the high-tech trappings and little or no soul, not like Mc Gurks, but it was drawing a crowd and I’m sure will carve it’s niche. We had some burgers, they DO know how to make good burgers and Pat had a spectacular salad, definitely the best call. Then it was time to visit the ‘Arch’. This massive stainless steel arch dominates the city and symbolises (though not it’s original intention) the line between the ‘Old’ East and the ‘New’ West, this was where the settlers passed through on the various routes west in search of a new life, gold and a decent Marguerita. I took the teeny little tram, more like a pod, to the top. There was no sensation of height as you don’t see any thing on the way up and at the top it’s totally enclosed, rather like what I imagine the gondola on an airship is like, but it is an excellent view over the city and the mighty Mississippi. Back to base and some serious sofa.
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