Just photos of the big cats at Henry Doorly Zoo.
Sleeping snow leopard.
Tiger nearly asleep.
Sleeping lion.
This tiger was pacing up and down the side of the cage every time that I walked by….
A heap of cheetahs, although I’m not sure that’s the scientific word for a group of them.
An awake tiger.
Sleepy lion.
This car was produced by the Holsman Automobile Company of Chicago and apparently has a two-cylinder air-cooled engine and chain belt drive, although that means nearly nothing to me. I liked that there’s plenty of information about the car’s history, it was owned by Arthur H. Johnson and his wife Minnie of Columbus, Nebraska.
There aren’t that many cars from the Holsman Automobile Company left on display around the world, around 25, and there’s only one in England, which is located at Burwell Museum and Windmill in Cambridgeshire. I thought that this was interesting as I’ve never heard of the museum before and it sounds a quirky place which is worth a visit, and their 1907 model is in working order.
This monument is closed off to visitors at the moment as the area appears to be flooded, but it’s an imposing and impressive sculpture even from afar. There are five figures within the monument, which combine to form a tribute to the labour movement and the people who built the city of Omaha.
It’s apparently the second largest monument to the labour movement in the United States, although I’m unsure where the largest is so that makes that fact rather less exciting. It was designed by Matthew J. Placzek, unveiled in 2003 and it is made from steel. Placzek is a local man and he writes on his web-site that “my purpose is to create works of art that will inspire, fulfill and make a lasting impression.”
I’m not claiming that this cross-section of flooring was the most interesting part about my visit to Durham Museum but I have stared at floors in these grand stations before and wondered what they’re made of. OK, it’s likely true that I have too much time to think about these things….
Anyway, the floor dates to 1931 and is a terrazzo floor which is hard wearing and also decorative. At this railway station the floor was designed to complement the art deco elements of the rest of the Grand Hall. Terrazzo is made of chips of marble which are then poured into a polymeric material, all very much of an art form.
Today felt like a day for a visit to a Mexican restaurant…. The warm Omaha sun had gone into hiding and a cold wind had taken over, so I thought some Mexican heat would help.
I wasn’t going for a lunch-time tequila, but this is quite a selection to say the least. I know nearly nothing about tequila, but there was a variety of different price points for the drinks, including a tequila at $35.
Kinkaider is a local Nebraska brewery and the Devil’s Gap jalapeno ale sounded rather tempting. It met my expectations, it had a subtle flavour, but the heat of the jalapenos was notable as an aftertaste.
I’ve never quite understood why it is beholden upon Mexican restaurants to always offer free chips and dips, but I’m certainly not going to complain about this tradition. There were so many chips that I never did get through them all and they seem to have been home-made, as did the sauce.
This set-up with the pepper and salt reminds me of Grosvenor in Norwich…. The service in the restaurant was friendly, slightly slow to acknowledge me at the door but a staff member apologised and offered me a choice of seating. The staff member who served me was engaging, checked if I had visited before and had a personable and confident personality. The service was attentive throughout the meal and I was never left waiting for anything.
And the food of chicken fajitas which was a bigger portion side that I had expected given all of the different elements that were served. The platter came over sizzling nicely, with the grilled chicken being tender and full of flavour. The onions, green and red peppers added some texture and flavour and the rice had green chillis in it to add some spice. The refried black beans were smooth and all of the other component parts of cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream were as expected. There was a generous amount of guacamole, always a delight as I do like avocados.
There were though only three tortillas which seemed a little low given the volume of other ingredients, but they were soft homemade flour tortillas and were some of the best that I’ve had. Everything was well presented and the various ingredients went together well.
The only slightly strange element about the service is that the server asked if I wanted a dessert whilst I was still mid-way through the main course. It seemed an odd time to ask, but I wasn’t rushed during the dine.
All in all, I really liked this restaurant and I would go back more often if I actually lived in the area. Friendly staff, decent food and the prices were also reasonable given the quality and quantity of the food and drink. All rather lovely.
Durham Museum has a few carriages as part of its collection and this is an original lounge car.
There’s a bar area at one end of the carriage and seating along the sides.
All rather comfortable, it’s from the golden age of railway travel.
Copies of menus from the period, dating from 1950. There was an interesting policy that “to expedite and improve service to you please write on meal check each menu item desired, as waiters are not permitted to accept or serve orders given verbally”.
The extra thick steak cost $5.25, which would have been a considerable sum at the time.
The former entrance to Union Station in Omaha, once one of the largest railway stations in the country. Work started on this building, on the site of the previous station, in 1929 and it opened in January 1931.
During its busiest period this railway station saw 10,000 passengers go through its doors every day, with 64 passenger trains. It remained in use until 1971 when Amtrak just couldn’t justify keeping it given the falling passenger numbers. The building was nearly demolished, but fortunately it was kept and turned into a museum.
The interior of the main railway hall. There was much more to this museum than I had anticipated, which I’ll post about separately as the collections were quite extensive. The staff member at the ticket desk was helpful and welcoming, offering a really comprehensive introduction to the museum. There were a large number of school children as part of a science festival, although they were kept to certain parts of the building and didn’t get in the way of visitors.
It’s a shame that this railway station still isn’t use, especially as the facilities in the replacement Amtrak building are much more limited, but at least it is still standing and can be accessed by the public.
I’m not really sure why this sign amused me, I just liked the “cupcakes” or “no cupcakes” on it. I might go back just because of this 🙂
The accommodation for my first night in Omaha was the only accommodation that I hadn’t booked before this trip to the United States, so was my only late booking. As my train arrived at 11pm, I wanted something central and easy to walk to from the railway station and this seemed well priced given its central location.
The free wine on arrival, a nice touch. And on that point, the staff member at reception was marvellous as he was friendly, conversational and helpful. The hotel doesn’t have the best of reviews, but my first impressions were very positive.
Clean and well presented, the room was absolutely fine. Actually, there were some marks on the wall where a repair seemed bit botched and there were some maintenance issues, but I didn’t consider them to really be an issue.
The bathroom door in the room was made of a lump of moveable wood, which seemed a bit clunky and didn’t really quite fit the door frame. But I was on my own, so it didn’t much matter.
The bathroom.
Ooooh, I love hotel history. The hotel by this point was exceeding my expectations (not just because of the history card, although that helped).
My night’s sleep was peaceful and uninterrupted, so the hotel was marching towards getting a near perfect review. Actually, I responded to the hotels.com review of my first impressions before going to sleep and the hotel responded thanking me within minutes, so this was all going marvellously.
Then, breakfast. This was bloody dreadful. Firstly, the breakfast room is not well designed, since the two people in it filled the entire space. A breakfast room really needs seats and not having them is an omission. The selection of food was also way below where it should be, it was muffins, and er, muffins. The drinks were limited to coffee and water, no juices were available and that was what I would have ideally liked.
Now, there was one more item available, which was the “hot breakfast”. I’m not that fussed about having a hot breakfast, I spend too much time in hotels on mainland Europe binge eating their cold meats, cold cheeses and bread selection, but if a hotel advertises a hot breakfast then it really should have it.
Technically, the hotel did offer a hot breakfast. If a customer went to reception and handed over a breakfast token then they got a breakfast roll. I had rather hoped that this might be, well, hot, but it wasn’t. Some vague instruction on how to cook it would have been useful, but not really essential as there were some heating instructions.
Given that the breakfast room, where there was a microwave, was full, I took my hot breakfast (still cold) back to my room. I then discovered that the microwave in the room didn’t work and since my breakfast roll is part frozen the only resolution would have been to traipse back down to the full breakfast room and try and cook the bloody thing. I didn’t bother, it went in the bin, which is an appalling waste of food I wasn’t overly pleased with.
So, the hotel breakfast was no drink and two muffins. They’d have probably been better off ditching the breakfast, since I’d have paid the same for the room anyway. But, my breakfast saga aside, this was a hotel which is clearly improving and the friendliness of the staff (particularly the one in the evening at check-in) was way above average.
Looking at some other reviews on TripAdvisor, I couldn’t disagree with the below (although they’d run out of beer with me and only had wine, although that was fine with me):
“The welcome process was to include beer and wine, and all that was on offer was Bud Light. No thanks. I walked right by the breakfast, which was beyond dismal. Otherwise, the bed was reasonably comfortable.”
Some people mentioned the breakfast was good (although many didn’t) so I do wonder whether something has changed in what is being provided. For the money, I thought that the entire stay represented perfectly decent value and their ranking as nearly the worst hotel in the city on TripAdvisor seems a little unfair.
This pedestrian bridge is 3,000 feet long and was formally opened on 28 September 2008, with work taking just under two years to complete.
The official name of the bridge is the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, but to its friends the bridge is just called Bob.
And my first step into Iowa.
And the one the other side of the bridge….
View from the bridge.
The city tourist authorities have given the bridge its own Twitter account, BobTBridge, and it’s now one of the best rated locations in the city on TripAdvisor. And where there’s a TripAdvisor page there are always reviews to amuse me….
As some background, I used this bridge as I needed to cross to Council Bluffs where my hotel is, and it’s the only pedestrian bridge there is in the vicinity to get there. So this review:
“It’s neat but it never gets used. A whole lot of nothing on both sides of the river. It’s a good drive by bridge.”
This is a reminder that some people actually walk and can’t use the nearby road bridge…. And it connects the largest city in the state of Nebraska with a large urban area the other side of the river, which is an interesting “whole lot of nothing”.
And the:
“Dumb idea. It’s a bridge. OK it twists a little bit, is limited to pedestrian traffic, and looks very pretty at night. However, I personally consider it to have been a waste of donated money and tax dollars. It was a dumb idea when it was built and remains so.”
It’s the “limited to pedestrian traffic” which is the reason that the bridge seems so hugely popular on TripAdvisor at least.
Anyway, I like the bridge, there were some families taking photos of how they had one foot in each state, it’s a useful bridge for getting across the river and it looks well made and has brought some life to the area in which it is located.
