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We drove into St Louis in a massive hurry after being informed by some friendly locals on the mother road that the St Louis Cardinals (Baseball) were playing and there was an outside chance that we could get tickets and make it to the game on time!

We drove in over the impressive Martin Luther King bridge and into the centre of the spectacular looking city. We spotted an Econo Lodge that was very close to the St Louis Rams stadium and parked up to inquire about the price of a room. We were dissapointed to learn that due to the hotels central location that a room cost $96 a night. A little too pricey for us so we drove to a reccommended nearby hostel.

Probably the worst decision ever!!! The Huckelberry Hostel is by far the worst place I have ever seen! It was a hideous, flea-ridden place and it looked like it hadn’t seen a guest in years! There were cats running wild all over the place and the owner may well have been the biggest freak on earth. We literally ran out of the place!! There was no way we were paying $20 to stay there!! We drove back to the Econo Lodge and the kind lady working there allowed us to park the car there while we went to the ball game. We had decided to watch the game and then drive out of the city centre afterwards to find cheaper digs.

We were all pretty gutted that we weren’t able to watch a Cubs game at the famous Wrigley stadium in Chicago and so we were overly keen to see one if we had the chance in St Louis. We therefore ran down the streets of St Louis to the Busch Stadium and were delighted to be able to purchase a ticket. We bought standing tickets for the extremely honest price of $20.

We immediately bought ourselves a great hot dog and then spotted some empty seats in the bottom tier. We sat down and weren’t bothered for the entire game! The stadium, atmosphere and the game itself just blew me away! The atmosphere is far more of a party atmosphere as apposed to the intense and passionate atmospheres we are used to. I suppose it has to be a little more chilled for it goes on for almost four hours. The game was great fun to watch and we were lucky to see a number of home runs hit. I was a little dissappointed that a ball didn’t come my way. It would have made a lovely souveneir. The cardinals won the game, to our delight, outscoring the Florida Marlins 6 to 4.

On the walk back, we quickly learned that if you walk down the wrong street in America, you’ll soon know all about it! We walked through some dosgy places and saw some very dodgy characters. At one point we were surrounded by some strange looking people and without a word being said, our slow walk turned into a quick jog!!

We drove back out of St Louis on the interstate and found another Econo Lodge. It was very cheap for it was bang in the middle of strip club central. There was two in viewing distance of our hotel room. One was called Hollywood and it had the tagline – “where everyone is a star”. For the record, we did not go in!

The next day we woke up bright and early to see the sights and attractions that St Louis had to offer. Our day out in the city began with a lovely walk in a very nice suburb. We had breakfast at an internet cafe that came reccommended in our USA lonely planet guide. We then went for a strole and randomly stumbled upon a Welsh Bar called Dressels. The owner’s name was Ben and it turned out that he used to work at Trinity College in Carmarthen, which is very near to where I live. He took us for a guided tour around his poub and gave us all a free t-shirt. He was an avid climber and had some stunning photos on the walls of his bar, which was fantastic. We left and went on into the centre of St Louis but assured Ben that we would be back for dinner later!

Our first stop was to the Budweiser Brewery. The brewery runs a free tour and you leran about the history behind Annheiser Busch and the Budweiser franchise. You also see many differnet areas of the brewery and even get to sample a load of beers at the end. We had so much fun that we all purchased Budweiser t-shirts!!

After having a great time sampling beers for free, we went back into the centre of the city to visit the famous Gateway Arch. The Arch is spectacular and it stands 615 feet high, next to the Mississipi River. We paid $12 to take a somewhat shakey tram style pod ride to the top, where there were viewing windows that allowed you to look out over the entire city. The Busch Stadium looked amazing from up there!! The tagline for the Arch is – “The Gateway to the South”, which we thought was quite fitting for our next destination was Memphis!

After viewing the Arch and the amazing view of the city it provides we stuck true to our word and returned for food at Dressels. Ben was genuinely happy to see us turn up and was adament that I try his Cawl (a traditional welsh dish). We sat outside for it was a beautiful day and ordered an American Ale each. I had cawl and a fantastic club sandwich. I never thought that I would travel all the way to America to try some fine welsh cuisine but I am so glad I did for the cawl was epic.

After St Louis we drove on south down to Memphis. Be sure to read my blog on Memphis for it is an amazing city with so much cool stuff to see and do………

November 6th, 2008 | Tags: America, Baseball, Cardinals, Martin Luther King Bridge, Missouri, Route 66, St Louis, USA | Category: North America Trips | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL