Day 2: From Springfield, IL to St Louis, MO

480 miles driven so far

The second day on route started very sunny, so before hiting the road we proceded to visit Springfield's landmarks.
Springfield is the capital city of the state of Illinois, it is also the place where Abraham Lincoln was born and lived before becoming president of the United States. In addition, Springfield is considered the third most dangerous city in the USA, which is remarkable considering the amount of competition.
That's one of the reasons why we didn't stick around for very long, and another being that there wasn't really too much to see. Everything here is devoted to A. Lincoln, and the most interesting features we saw were the State Capital and Lincoln's tomb. There were a few school buses visiting the latter.

Instead of taking the direct route to St. Louis, we took a diversion from route 66 and drove to the city of Arthur, the heart of the Amish Country and their biggest settlement in Illinois. The beautiful landscape in this area consisted of infinite plains with small farms scattered all around.
Here, we had the chance to see some of the Amish people going about their bussinesses while we stopped for lunch.

Plenty of churches to choose from

  Danger! Amish on the road

 
Then back on the road heading to St. Louis, the second most dangerous city in USA. This is what you could call living on the wild side : ). St. Louis is spread across two states: Illinois and Missouri, the Mississippi river separating them. Our first destination was actually one of the bridges linking both states: The Chain of Rocks Bridge was built in the 1920's and is now no longer used, and whose main feature is that it's bent at the middle.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi river.

We then hurried up to downtown as there was something important we didn't want to miss: a visit to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery: One of the largest breweries in the world and producer of famous brands as Budweisser, and others not so famous but much better. Their building is impressive, built in red brick in the late 19 century style. The tour included a visit to the production facilities and two free beers for sampling, nice! Going on this tour one can really see these guys take their product very seriously.

Time now to check in the hotel and get ready to finish the day. Considering the dining options nearby and the lack of energy available, we opted for an Irish pub for a fish and chips and bangers and mash, conveniently accompanied by ales. The food was really good, with Brit hits on the playlist so it was hard to think we were really thousands of miles away from UK.

A quick visit to the Arch of St Louis before going to bed and then the day was over, just before it got too dark...