[We had upload problems yesterday.]
Strasburg, CO – The drumming of raindrops on the RV roof in
the night seemed to be a portent of the coming day, but it proved to be
perfectly fine, weatherwise. We drove in to the city to find out what points of
interest we might like to see, and to connect with the bus tour we’d arranged
for in the afternoon.
The Denver Visitor Center is on one corner of the 16th
Street Mall, a stretch of several blocks dedicated to pedestrians. Along either
side of the wide walking area is a corridor for the free shuttle buses that
offer lifts from one end to the other, so although there are no cars, one does
have to watch out for the buses – and because they are hybrid vehicles, they
don’t make a lot of noise as they approach!
Armed with a city map and some ideas of places to see, we
explored the mall and some of the special sites in the area. One of these was the Federal Reserve Money
Museum, with free admission and displays of paper currency designs,
counterfeiting prevention, and the history of the Reserve. At the entrance was a large bin filled with
bags of…money! And a sign, encouraging visitors to help themselves! Each bag
held about $165, quite useful if one had the time to stick all the thin slivers
of paper back together again!
A little further down the street was the Colorado Convention
Center. Probably its most important claim to fame, beyond the thousands of
people who attend conventions in it and the topics they discuss, is the 40-foot
blue bear that stands outside, paws on the huge windows, peeking inside to see
what’s going on. Its name is “I See What
You Mean” and was created by a local artist who had once seen a black bear
peeking inside a house in much the same way.
It reflected the artist’s curiosity about conventions that take place
inside. The Blue Bear has become a local
icon.
After we had lunch, we connected with our Gray Line tour of
Denver – and discovered we were the only customers today! So we had a private
tour from driver Gerald, who was very knowledgeable about the sights, and
tailored our visit to our particular interests.
We saw the golden dome of the state capitol, the home of Molly Brown,
who didn’t sink in the Titanic disaster, the huge flock of cormorants that
reside at the City Park (and just returned from their winter break), the two
huge sports arenas for Denver’s home teams, and much more.
We learned that Denver has a large German community, which
explained the many beer-and-bratwurst restaurants we saw, and that the
high-tech field was a key employer. We visited Cranmer Park, with its flagstone
platform displaying the names of the entire array of mountains to the west of
it, and where a tilted sundial taller than a man provides the time of day all
year round, in spring and summer on its upper face and the rest of the year on
the back of it.
It was a comprehensive and fascinating visit,
and now we feel much better acquainted with this attractive western city.
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