Day 17: Gateway Arch and Trolley Tour

The enormous St. Louis Gateway Arch is absolutely iconic. If you were to come to this city and not got 'up' the arch, you'd be mad! Rosie and I, therefore, remain sane...

Each leg of the arch has a 'train' of 8 cars inside it that each seat 5 people. The cars are a bit like cramped ferris wheel cars. They're suspended beneath a monorail, but you're really quite unaware of this. You buy your ticket, you get allocated to a car (between 1 and 8) in either the North or South train, you receive a group briefing and watch a short history video, and you're made ready to board when your train comes down and its passengers have alighted.

You take a 4-min ride up to near the apex, alight, and walk a few steps to the viewing gallery, 630 ft above the ground. On the other side of the tape divider you can see the people from the train that came up in the other leg. The viewing gallery has a series of tiny windows through which you get both eastwards and westwards views. Your group gets 10 minutes and then you have to reboard your train and descend for a 3 min return ride down.

Rosie and I then took a 75-min 'trolley' ride around the city with a commentary from the driver. It wasn't a hop-on/hop-off bus (which they do have in St Louis), so you couldn't get decent photos, but being fully enclosed we did not have to cope with any weather that might have occurred.Read more