As a reward, we have the weekend in St Louis, staying in my friend's 'condo' as they call them. Amazingly we get there with no wrong turns or mishaps, so still speaking to each other when we arrive. Roland is getting used to the car and the roads.
The condo is in Clayton, the legal centre of St Louis and rather up market. The american middle classes know how to live well. They have lovely, tree lined suburbs, with really nice houses and gardens.
In fact, you can hardly see the houses for the trees.
Rain has been forecast on and off for the whole weekend, but they got it wrong! It is blue skies and sun all the time.
We are quite near Forest Park, which is where the St Louis, 1904 World Fair was held, and decide to go there first. It's hot. Over 80 F and Roland forgot his hat. The truth is he left it behind because he thought it wasn't the right image in town!!! Result, a slightly tetchy Roland.
The World Fair was held to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. My American history is practically non existent, but this was when Jefferson bought a large chunk of America- the Louisiana Territory from France, thereby doubling the size of America overnight. This apparently was a smart move by Napoleon, who was sure the British would get it off him anyway. In this part of Missouri, round St Louis and along the Mississippi, you get a lot of french place names-Ste. Genevieve, Bonne Terre, Cape Girardeau, La Grange etc.
This park is big. 1,300 acres to be precise. Just as well, the fair attracted over 20 million visitors!
We go to the art gallery first, which over looks an ornamental lake, a left over from the fair.
Outside the gallery is a rather striking statue of St Louis.
The art gallery is very enjoyable. A room of american art, including local artists George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton, both of whom are very good. There is also an very interesting collection of international stuff from the very early to the modern. It was really nice looking round a gallery, and I realise it would be something I would miss if I couldn't do it fairly often.
We dine in down town Clayton, which has streets of restaurants with tables out on the pavements. Lots of choice, which makes a change and it's not fast food. We eat outside because it's so warm and the food is tasty. I can't believe that it's late october. The Mid West is having the sunniest october on record- lucky for us. The temperatures are also out of the norm. I can't help feeling we might pay for all this later!
Next day we go into town by public transport! St Louis has a metro and buses. There are only two lines on the metro, but better than nothing. It's funny to be on a train again- freedom. Also unlike Fulton, there are a lot more blacks around. They do live in Fulton, but they are very much on the fringes. I realise we have been living in a white society for 2 months, which for a Londoner is weird.
It now becomes apparent why the city is so spread out. There is a huge swathe of inner St Louis, the old industrial part, which surrounds the old centre. Most of this is derelict and run down. A good place for photos I would think. Then there are the parks and huge green areas, then the shiny new suburbs, which have been built beyond.
Inner St Louis is very bold, new, shiny high rise, with very little of the old left.
There is the odd old sky scraper.
The old Court House is one of the few old buildings left.
We go the museum under the arch, which is large. It covers american history from beginning to end as well as local history. Most of the american presidents I've never heard of.
They have a good section on the Lewis/Clarke expedition, which was sent out by Jefferson to explore the new Louisiana purchase. There was also some very striking photos of Indian chiefs, which of course they didn't have postcards of, with some sad but eloquent quotations from them, saying they were lied to and done the dirty on.
We were glad we had gone up the arch last time as the queue was enormous and Mr patience would not have waited!
We then walked to the old Court House. This is old for America- 1828 and has a very beautiful interior.
This also has a very good museum in the basement, with quite a large section on slavery. There was a very well known case tried in this court- The Dred Scott case. A slave sued for freedom in the courts claiming he had lived in states where slavery was illegal and therefor should be set free. The final judgement basically said as a black slave Dred was not a citizen and therefor not allowed to use the courts. The ruling was considered very controversial at the time.
Finally, one always has to have a train slipped in somewhere, we went to Union Station. This sadly is no longer used as a train station, but was saved and restored. The main body of the station is a rather tacky selection of fast food outlets and shops.
The grand hall, however, at the front is now part of a hotel and is magnificent.
The detail is lovely, the stain glass is Tiffany and the
whole room looks gorgeous.
Those were the days when travelling by train was classy.
The outside is rather heftier in style and the tower enormous. Inspired by Carcassonne apparently.
We are knackered from so much culture, so we head back to Clayton.
It's even warmer than last night, so we dine outside again. A restaurant with pretensions to haute cuisine. It's very good. The waiter is half indian from Yorkshire and half belgian. We asked him if he liked living in St Louis and he complained it was not cosmopolitan enough for him. We were just thinking it was very cosmopolitan compared to Fulton. It's all relative.
As we drive back on sunday, the weather turns and looks stormy. We timed it well.
Well an exciting week ahead. Halloween and the mid term elections, and they have quite a lot in common!
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