That's the song that comes to all our minds when thinking about St Louis but I have it on good authority you don't say Louee you say Louis, don't want to offend the locals!!

Our Southwest flight to St Louis was on time and uneventful, I pretty much napped all the way. We landed at 7pm and had picked up our bags and were heading out of the terminal all in about 10 minutes. My bag had suffered a broken handle and major tyre blow out so was wobbling all over the place, Rodd being the gentleman he is swapped bags and we made our way off to find the Metrolink Station. As always I'd done my research and had discovered the train from the airport to the Convention Center stop at Washington Ave downtown was the cheapest way to get there. The signage was great, we walked out of the terminal following the signs, past the pick up zone, across a few roads, past the shuttle zone, past the taxi pick up zone still following the signs to Metrolink. We walked into the undercover car park, it's all fairly deserted looking and we're thinking "ok this is a major airport, there's signs pointing the way to the MetroLink so we'll be fine" .... but the place is a bit dingy and as we got to the other side of the car park the signs lead us into a walkway that zigzagged upwards, we could see the train line up there so kept walking but we were now in a narrow concrete walled ramp and I must admit I had visions of muggers coming from both behind and in front of us blocking us in with nowhere to run.... I had to calm my active imagination and keep on walking. At the top of the ramp we were faced with a flight of stairs and a sign pointing around a dark corner to the elevator... we chose the elevator as Rodds foot is still swollen and sore and of course we have luggage and the wobbly wheel! That short walk to the elevator was pretty awful, a dark concrete enclosed path and then when we stepped into the elevator it was like stepping into a urinal which didn't fill me with confidence but we soldiered on and made it unscathed to the platform. As we stepped out of the lift I noticed how dark it was up here and there was one guy up the end that seemed to be mumbling to himself. I was a little wary of him until I went to check the timetable and he yelled at me from the other end "next train at 7.29" I just called back "great thanks" but was feeling a little nervous. We managed to work out the ticket vending machine and bought our tickets for $4 each then we worked out we had to validate them in the machine. We had about 10 minutes to wait and it was FREEZING .. the wind was whipping down the platform and nowhere to hide, I did try to take a photo showing how our breath was frosted but it didn't really work. A few minutes later another guy got out of the lift and yes I freaked out more imagining some sort of gang type activity about to ensue but he walked down the platform, switched on the light and started chatting to "gang member #1" !! Oh Liane really, control your imagination!! The train ride was .. oh.. about 20 -30 minutes then we emerged once again into the freezing wind at the Convention Center. I had done this walk to the hotel on google earth so knew where to go and Rodd followed along saying "you're amazing, how do you know where to go? You're in a strange city on the other side of the world"!! ... yes well having years to research, plan and obsess over holidays comes in handy it seems!

Check in at the Hampton Inn at the Arch was quick and easy, the reception staff were so friendly and helpful and it was an absolute delight walking in the room, the view was fantastic, looking out on the Arch. We weren't there long though cos we wanted to go out for dinner. My original plan was to spend the night checking out Washington Ave nightlife, maybe find some music somewhere however after the late night last night we just decided on dinner and bed. I had found Pi Pizzeria on TripAdvisor and had checked out the menu and it looked amazing. It was right at the Convention Center Metro stop so only a couple blocks from the hotel.. but it was -5 outside so not too pleasant out walking. Pi Pizza was amazing, the pizzas were really good and the garlic bread was served with a whole k*** of roasted garlic, I've never had it served like that before, yum! We started talking to the server and told him I'd found them on TripAdvisor and just had to come and try them out.. The owner ended up coming over to talk to us and they gave us the most divine chocolate brownie with salted caramel ice cream which so so lovely gesture but I think they loved the fact we'd come all the way from Australia to eat their pizza. Straight back to the Hotel after dinner for a reasonably early night. Tomorrow we get to explore St Louis.