11 Jul St. Louis, MO

This post is based primarily on Don's notes, occasionally supplemented with MT's notes from our cruise in July 2025. When information from other sources is added—for further explanation to readers or to satisfy our own curiosity—that is set off in a text box (as this one).
Most of the photos that accompany this post are from Don’s camera (with a caption indicating the time it was taken); those from MT’s iPhone are indicated by “MT” placed at the beginning of the photo caption. Photos from any other source (such as the public domain Wikimedia Commons), occasionally used for clarification, indicate that source in the caption.

The Viking Daily newsletter showed today's weather forecast as "Mostly Sunny 90° F" and "Sunrise: 5:45 AM | Sunset: 8:26 PM."

Don woke at 6:30 am (MT already up).

At 7:30, we went to the River Café (Deck 5) for breakfast.

At 9:15, we went to the Explorers' Lounge (Deck 2) for Trivia with Cruise Director Travis.

At 10:15, we stayed at the Explorers' Lounge (Deck 2) for an Enrichment Lecture by Destination Specialist JP about "Gateway to the West: History, Sights, and Bites of St. Louis."

MT Friday, July 11, ‎2025, 10:21 AM - Viking Mississippi: apparently, we stopped by the bar to try another local specialty.

MT 10:36 AM - Viking Mississippi: sign for "Celebrating 100 Years [of] Route 66 1926-2026" (mild telephoto 55 mm) .

At 11:00, we went to the Living Room (Deck1) for the "Future Cruise Presentation" with Cruise Director Travis.

The Viking Daily newsletter had said we were scheduled to arrive at the Viking Mississippi docks in St. Louis at 1:00. However, we arrived early.

MT 11:59 AM - Viking Mississippi: MT and Don on Deck 1 with Gateway Arch of St. Louis in background telephoto  55 mm) .

At 12:00, we went to the River Café (Deck 5) for lunch.

12:03 PM - Viking Mississippi: Downtown St. Louis with Gateway Arch, from Deck 1.

12:03 PM - Viking Mississippi: Gateway Arch, from Deck 1 (telephoto 79 mm).

At 2:15, we went to the Living Room (Deck 1) meeting place for the (included) shore excursion "St. Louis: Gateway to the West."

In our original itinerary we had been scheduled to visit St. Louis on July 12, and we had chosen to forego this free excursion in order to do some optional (paid) excursions on that day. However, since we actually arrived on July 11, we were offered the chance to take the included excursion the afternoon before those optional excursion on July 12.

The following is the description of the "St. Louis: Gateway to the West" excursion on the My Viking Journey web site for our original itinerary:

 

St. Louis, the “Gateway to the West”
INCLUDED
Day 8 – St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Saturday, July 12 now Friday, July 11

9:00 AM / 1:00 PM
3.8 Hours
Easy
Sightseeing
 
Introducing the Best of St. Louis
Discover the “Gateway City,” a bit of historic Americana that is also a colorful immigrant hub and cultural jewel.
This tour acquaints you with St. Louis’s main attractions: the Old Cathedral (officially, Basilica of St. Louis, King of France), the oldest church west of the Mississippi; the Old Courthouse; and the Eero Saarinen–designed Gateway Arch, a vast and uplifting homage to pioneering spirits that is the tallest arch in the world. Ride along Market Street to see the newly renovated Union Station, the St. Louis Wheel, Busch Stadium and many other landmarks. You will also get a sense of St. Louis’s immigrant heritage as you pass through Lafayette Square, where the Victorian homes of 19th-century German, French and Italian residents have been lovingly restored.

MT 2:42 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of  beer-drinking creature on corner of one of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery buildings (telephoto 78 mm).

MT 2:45 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of  sign for "Anheuser-Busch, Inc." and part of one of the brewery's buildings in the Soulard neighborhood (mild telephoto 45 mm).

The Soulard historic neighborhood in St. Louis is one of eight certified historic districts in the city. It is named for Antoine Soulard and his wife Marie Julia Cérre Soulard. Antoine Soulard first began to develop the land given to him by his father-in-law, Jean-Gabriel Céree, a wealthy merchant and fur-trader. Soulard was a surveyor for the Spanish government and a refugee from the French Revolution in the 1790s. The neighborhood is roughly divided by Lynch St, north of which is mostly row homes and small apartments and south of which is largely the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and the North American headquarters of Anheuser-Busch. Many of the district's houses date from the late 19th century, and Soulard also has several historic churches.
When Antoine Soulard (1765-1825) fled France for the US, he learned that there were many fellow Frenchmen in St. Louis, and he made his way there in 1794. In 1795, he was appointed the first surveyor-general of Spanish Upper Louisiana. He and his wife remained in St. Louis for the rest of their lives.

(Our tour guide said he was hired by Thomas Jefferson to survey the Louisiana Purchase and was given this piece of land.)

MT 3:08 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of Victorian house in the Soulard neighborhood.

3:11 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of Victorian house in the Soulard neighborhood.

MT 3:09 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of house in the "Riverboat"style, in the Soulard neighborhood (mild telephoto 46 mm).

MT 3:10 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of former Methodist church (now a condo) in the Soulard neighborhood.

MT 3:14 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of Ferris wheel at Union Station and downtown St. Louis.

MT 3:17 PM - St. Louis: view, through bus window, of 

"St. Louis Union Station" entrance.

MT 3:17 PM (Cropped) - St. Louis: entrance with "St. Louis Union Station" below the arch and "Terminal Hotel" above the arch.

St. Louis: St. Louis Union Station, from postcard around 1909 (By Unknown author. Not credited. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9520540).

 
St. Louis Union Station is a National Historic Landmark and a former train station. At its opening in 1894, the station was the largest and busiest train station in the world. In 1903, the station was expanded to accommodate thousands of visitors to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In the 1920s, it remained the largest American railroad terminal.  As airliners became the primary mode of long-distance travel and railroad passenger services declined in the 1950s and 60s, the massive station became obsolete and too expensive to maintain for its original purpose. The last Amtrak passenger train left the station in 1978. In the 1980s, it was renovated as the St. Louis Union Station Hotel, a shopping center, and an entertainment complex. In 2020-11, the station’s hotel in the main terminal building was expanded, taking over space previously occupied by stores and restaurants. An adjacent station serves light rail and bus lines, which run under the station in the Union Station subway tunnel.

MT 3:17 PM (Cropped) - St. Louis: view, through the bus window, of the rest of the St. Louis Union Station Hotel to the left of the entrance.

3:20 PM (Cropped) - St. Louis: view through bus windshield, of Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse in front and beneath it in distance between tall buildings at end of the street.

MT 3:20 PM  - St. Louis: view through bus windshield, of Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse in front of it at end of the street (telephoto 133 mm).

 

Our first (and only) stop was for the Gateway Arch.

MT 3:40 PM - St. Louis: Gateway Arch from where our bus parked.

The Gateway Arch National Park is located near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The immediate surroundings of the Gateway Arch were initially designated the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The memorial was established in 1935 to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent westward movement of American explorers and pioneers; the first civil government west of the Mississippi River; and the debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case.
The Gateway Arch, known as the “Gateway to the West,” was designed by the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinnen and the German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. It was built between 1963 and 1965.  After the arch was completed, the area surrounding it was redesignated the Gateway Arch National Park in 2018.
The national park consists of the Gateway Arch, a steel arch that has become the definitive icon of St. Louis; a park along the Mississippi River on the site of the earliest buildings of the city; the Old Courthouse, a former state and federal courthouse, where the local trials in the Dred Scott case were tried; and the museum at the arch. 

MT 4:44 PM - St. Louis: Don with Gateway Arch.

MT 4:44 PM - St. Louis:  MT with Gateway Arch.

MT 4:46 PM - St. Louis: Gateway Arch with Don and 

MT (a young man, who turned out to be an expert photographer, volunteered to take our picture with MT's iPhone).

From the arch, we turned to the right, to see the Basilica of Saint Louis (the Old Cathedral), which we were unable to enter due to a wedding taking place there.

4:54 PM - St. Louis: sign for "Basilica of Saint Louis King of France - The Old Cathedral - Established in 1770."

 

 

St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, with rectory on right and orphanage on left, from postcard dated 1840 (By J.T. Hammond after J.C. Wild - Missouri History, Public Domain, at  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61734415.)

 
The Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, formerly the Cathedral of Saint Louis and colloquially the Old Cathedral, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and until 1844 the only Catholic parish church in St. Louis. It is one of the two Catholic basilicas in St. Louis (with the current cathedral), and both are named for King Louis IX of France (the namesake of the city).
The current structure (built 1831-34) is located near the historic riverfront of St. Louis. It is surrounded by Gateway Arch National Park, although it is not part of the park. Because of the historical significance of the church, it was left intact while all the neighboring buildings were demolished to make way for the arch. Because of its historical significance and its location along the Mississippi River near the Arch, the basilica remains a popular church for marriage ceremonies in the archdiocese.

MT 4:51 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - façade and tower.

4:55 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - sign for "Church Domain" with map superimposed over current map of US and picture of basilica at bottom left with callouts A thru D explained at bottom right.

4:56 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - text at top left of that sign reads as follows:

"Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

"Church Domain

"The Old Cathedral in front of you is the first Roman Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi and the fourth church building to stand on this site. Completed in 1834, it was a hub of the Catholic expansion in the west in the mid-to late-1800s. American Indians visited here and missionaries traveled westward from here. Between 1826 and 1843, the Archdiocese of St. Louis included much of the land between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.

"The Roman Catholic Church has owned this site since the founding of St. Louis  in 1761. The Old Cathedral is the oldest surviving building on the waterfront and remains an active parish."

4:56 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - text at top right of that sign reads as follows:

"The Archdiocese of St. Louis stretched to the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1800s."

4:56 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - at bottom left of that sign is a picture of the Old Cathedral and adjacent buildings ("Orphanage and Convent" at the left and "Bishop's house" at right) as they appeared in the mid-1800s, with callouts A-D explained to the right (see next photo) as follows:

"Old Cathedral Translations

"A  'Yahweh' or 'God' in Hebrew

"'Three persona in one God' in Latin.

"B 'My house will be called a house of prayer' in English (left) and French (right)

"C 'In honor of [Saint] Louis' and 'Dedicated A.D. 1834' in Latin.

"D 'Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them' in English left), Latin (middle), and French (right)."

4:56 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - explanation of callouts A-D (see previous photo) reads as follows:

"Old Cathedral Translations

"A  'Yahweh' or 'God' in Hebrew

"'Three persona in one God' in Latin.

"B 'My house will be called a house of prayer' in English (left) and French (right)

"C 'In honor of [Saint] Louis' and 'Dedicated A.D. 1834' in Latin.

"D 'Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them' in English left), Latin (middle), and French (right)."

4:57 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - on either side of the  façade are bronze plaques (see this photo and the next), the first of which reads as follows:

"1845 ... 1945

"The first conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in the United States was organized here at this venerable cathedral one hundred years ago. The delegates  of the Society in Convention Assembled Oct 1, 1945 place this tablet to commemorate the centennial of the foundation."

4:57 PM - St. Louis: Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France - the other bronze plaque reads as follows:

"Basilica of Saint Louis, King

"On this location the first church in St. Louis, a small wood structure, was blessed on June 24, 1770. Six years later it was replaced by a larger church of white oak timbers blessed and used for divine service for the first time in early summer of 1776. It also served as the cathedral for the installation of Bishop Louis DuBourg, the Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, who took up residence here January 5, 1818. Little more than two months later on March 29, 1818, the cornerstone for a brick cathedral was blessed and placed. The brick cathedral destined to remain unfinished was supplanted by the present stone church. Bishop Joseph Rosati, CM. blessed the cornerstone on August 1, 1881 and solemnly consecrated this church on October 26, 1884. The title of 'Cathedral' ceased when the present cathedral located on the western edge of the city was blessed. However, on January 25, 1961, Pope John XXIII designated this historic church a basilica, thereby conferring on it worldwide recognition. Today this is the Basilica of Saint Louis, King, popularly: The Old Cathedral.

"Plaque erected by Knights of Columbus 1916.

"Replaced: 1982."

Then we went back to the Gateway Arch.

5:00 PM - St. Louis: a closer view of the Gateway Arch.

5:02 PM - St. Louis: view from the Gateway Arch, across the mall to the Old Courthouse.

The Old Courthouse was completed in 1828 in the Federal style. It is built on land originally deeded by St. Louis founder Auguste Choteau to be a courthouse. The original cupola was replaced in 1861 with an Italian Renaissance cast iron dome with a copper exterior, modeled on St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The dome was built during the American Civil War and is similar to the dome on the US Capitol, which was also built during that war and is also modeled on that basilica. It was the site of the local trials in the Dred Scott case.
When St. Louis County and the city split in 1877, the courthouse became city property. The courthouse was abandoned by the city in 1930 after it built the Civil Courts Building. In 1940, the courthouse became part of the new Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It is now part of the Gateway Arch National Park and is maintained by the National Park Service.

 

MT 4:59 PM - St. Louis: closer view of the Old Courthouse, with our Viking bus parked in front of it (mild telephoto 43 mm).

5:05 PM - St. Louis: Gateway Arch, with museum beneath it.

MT 5:04 PM - St. Louis: Don holding up the Gateway Arch.

MT 5:08 PM - St. Louis: Don and ME by sign for "Gateway Arch National Park" near the arch.

When we left our bus, our guide had said she wanted us back on the bus by 6:15. However, this excursion was supposed to start 2:30 and our tickets said it would last 3 hours (although the My Viking Journey had said 3.8 hours.) So we had talked her down to 5:30. However, 8 people didn't show at 5:30-5:45, so we missed the 5:30 Daily Briefing back on the ship. Fortunately the briefing was recorded so we could watch it on our stateroom TV later.

At 6:30, we went to The Restaurant (Deck 1) for dinner.

At 7:15, we went to the Living Room (Deck 1) for Evening Entertainment: Tribute to Piano Men Billy Joel and Elton John.