After a good and long night sleep (almost 10 hours
altogether) I left the AAE 11
th Street hostel and made my way
towards the Civic Center of Denver, CO. Only a couple of blocks from the hostel
is the cultural center of Denver which is directly connected to the Civic
Center. I had a look at the Denver Art Museum and the Central Library and some
of the art works around. I really liked the design of those buildings and how
well they fit together. Only a few steps further and I arrived at the Civic
Center with the town hall, different federal buildings and of course the
Colorado State Capitol. I entered the State Capitol and was lucky as a guided
tour started just a few minutes after my arrival. It was interesting to learn
more about this historic building which was build 10 years after the State of
Colorado was founded in 1886. Special to mention here is that most of the
building material used in the building comes from Colorado. The one hour tour
ended with a visit of the roof top which provided a nice overview of the Civic
Center, the city center and its surroundings. Unfortunately the nearby
mountains were not visible because it was a very over casted day. I briefly
visited the mile high point located on the stairs of the State Capitol. I
continued towards the 16
th Street Mall taking the free shuttle bus
for a couple of blocks. After I had lunch I headed down towards Union Station
in order to catch bus 48. As I couldn’t find the right bus stop I went and ask
just to find out that the line had been moved and the bus was now picking up
passenger from the city center. So I took the free mall shuttle back to 16
th
and Curtis from where I could catch bus 48. After about a 15 minutes ride I arrived
at my destination the Forney Transportation Museum. Conveniently there was a
bus stop right in front of the museum. The main reason to visit this museum was
to see one of the largest steam engines ever build the Union Pacific Class 4000
also known as ‘Big Boy’ a 4-8-8-4 engine. Only 25 of these super engines were
built in the 1940s of which only 8 have endured. The locomotive on display was
number 4005. Finally having a chance to see this engine was a dream come true
for me. The remaining exhibition in the museum was nice, too. Especially worth
mentioning is a fine collection of well preserved Cadillac cars. I took bus 48
back to the 16
th Street Mall and briefly visited the Money Museum at
the Federal Bank right on 16
th Street which offered free admission.
I saw original 1,000 and 10,000 dollar notes and some of the oldest dollar
notes ever printed. Also I took a picture of 30,000,000 dollar on display and
received a small bag full of shredded dollar notes once worth thousands of
dollar. After my visit to the Federal Bank I went back to the Union Station in
order to find out how much today’s California Zephyr was delayed, there was no
doubt that the train would not be on time. I was surprised to learn that the
train was expected by 11 pm and bound to leave at 11.20 pm. The scheduled
arrival time would have been 6.38 pm and departure at 7.10 pm. This gave me
time to return to the center. I visited first a book store a friend had
recommended me. I found some great train books and a book on the United States one
of the last large ocean liners that was still built in the 1950 and is now
rusting away in the harbor of Philadelphia, one of the many places on my long
list of things I wanted to see during this trip. I headed then up 16
th
Street in order to get some dinner and to buy some snacks as well as a cheap
blanket for the upcoming nights on the train as I had a quite unpleasant
experience on the first night while traveling on the California Zephyr feeling
very cold during the night. Finally I returned to Union Station just in time to
escape the rain that started. Still I had to endure another 4 hours in the
station before finally the heavily delayed California Zephyr arrived from
Emeryville. In the end another 1.5 hours came on top of that delay due to a
medical emergency on the train and the California Zephyr pulled into Denver
Union Station no later than 12.25 am. We left Denver with about five and a half
hours delay. At least the new blanket let me find sleep easier this time.
Unfortunately this time I was assigned a window seat which really didn’t make
me too happy.
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| Colorado State Capitol |
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| Denver seen from the State Capitol |
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| Big Boy 4005 |
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| A fine collection of Cadillacs |
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