Meet me in St Louis

Hotel #4 Pear tree inn St Louis
State#2: Missouri- ‘The Show me state’ (not sure what it’s showing me)

Up early again for breakfast. We had biscuits and gravy- experiencing real America now. Bit weird for breakfast though so we countered it with a waffle and syrup!

Suitably laden with food we decided to go to the zoo, mainly because it’s free and we’ve been spending money like it’s water. Got there on the metro and then a long walk through Forest park. Of all the metro/tram/undergrounds in the world I have been on,St Louis’ does not rank that highly. It mainly smelt of weed, and we watched a man getting arrested at one of the stations - there was blood.
Anyway the park was beautiful but at 10am it was already 32degrees so the beauty became lost on us for a time.

The zoo is really good- great selection of animals and really good set up considering it’s free. And some bits are blissfully air conditioned. My favourite bit was the butterfly house. My least favourite bit was discovering that there is a tarantula native to Missouri. No one told me there were tarantulas here...

After trekking back to the weed smelling, blood covered (slight exaggeration) metro we came back to the hotel so Rich could change out of the inexplicably heavy jeans he’d decided to wear. Then back on the metro to the gate way arch.

St Louis still doesn’t really have much of a touristy feel even here at their biggest attraction. I had pre booked tickets and the logistical process was straightforward and efficient. You go up the inside in special tram. The tram has eight carriages with 5 people to each carriage. To say the carriages are a tight fit would be an understatement. Luckily the door is glass so you can seethe inside of the arch as you are going up making it slightly less claustrophobic.

Pretty tight at the top too! Teeny little windows but you can lead outwards and get a good view. Got another ‘tall building shadow’ picture for the collection.

Found ourselves a nice sports brewery for some bbq pork and brisket yummy food and beer. Beer again :)

Then back to the hotel for an early night. We have yet to actually make it out past 9pm!!! Back on the road tomorrow!