Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Amtrak Adventure 2019
Cross-state River Runner
We
were up at 0630 to prepare for our next train ride. Following
another breakfast at Park Avenue Coffee, we took a MetroLink tram to
St Louis's unattractive Gateway Station, boarded the
Missouri River Runner and achieved an on-time
departure! (Select Trains from the black menu and
look at Train 2 for further details.)
We arrived into Union Station, Kansas City, MO a little late and in dreadful weather. The station itself was hugely impressive, and we knew that it would demand a closer look at a more favourable time. Our hotel was situated diagonally opposite on a major intersection, and we felt fortunate indeed to be able to use covered walkways to get to the Westin without getting completely soaked. It was clear from the moment that we walked through the front door that the hotel was full of convention attendees. Fairly quickly after settling into our room, we decided to have a cocktail in the lobby bar, to celebrate our somewhat soggy arrival at a new destination.
Roughly
a couple of hours later, we decided to return to the station and
quickly found Pierpont's, a high-end restaurant. It had an equally
impressive bar, and it didn't take much persuasion to have us
settling in on a pair of bar stools. The bar shelves were
spectacular, with the attendant needing to use a ladder to get to
some of the bottles. I could visualise a job advert: candidates
who suffer from vertigo need not apply. We really enjoyed a
variation on the classic Manhattan: the Manhattan Kansas
was based on locally distilled Rye, and served with a fig (instead
of the usual cherry) and improbable-sounding balsamic fig reduction.
Amazingly, it worked - and worked well. Bruce was getting lots of
chatter from a rather lonely-looking woman sitting at the bar. I
smiled a few times to be polite, but couldn't get interested in what
she was going on about.
Finally, we had a pizza in a place called SPIN! in the Crown Center,
the worldwide headquarters of Hallmark Cards. With the weather
outside still vile, it had the advantage of a direct connection to
the Westin. It was a good pizza, even if they did make it very clear
indeed when they considered that it was closing time. Back in the
room, Bruce discovered that he had received his first ever
'reverse-911' voice mail advising him to seek immediate shelter due
to tornado activity in the area!
