Cruising the Mississippi – La Crosse, Wisconsin

This is one of a series of articles about the Viking Mississippi cruise from St Paul, Minnesota to New Orleans. Follow the links for the initial piece reviewing the new Viking boat and with general information about the cruise, and the previous article about Red Wing, Minnesota.

After leaving Red Wing in the late afternoon, we traveled overnight towards La Crosse, in Wisconsin. Just before the sun set, we did see the cliffs of the Maiden Rocks Bluff above the river bank, but the night quickly takes over once the cruising begins.

We arrived around 8am in La Crosse, and I chose an optional tour to Decorah in Iowa to see the Vesterheim Museum. After a coach trip of about an hour through the fields and hills of Iowa, we arrived in Decorah. This town was chosen by many of the emigrating farmers from Norway in the 1800s and, to this day, it has a very Norwegian feel – not in the scenery, clearly, but in the local community. Many local people still trace their ancestry back to those early immigrants and have relatives in Norway that they keep in touch with. The Vesterheim museum is a large and well-funded institute full of the history of those times, including historic homes that were moved to the site from the neighboring areas and renovated to give a real feel for what life was like for the people arriving here in Iowa.

We were taken round the museum in small groups learning about life for the early immigrants. I quite like museums and this was timed about right. An hour or so of touring the museum with a guide, then lunch in a local and popular bar and then free time to explore the town (and revisit the rest of the museum’s exhibits) before leaving on the coach again for our departure. I must say that the guides on the coaches were all very informative without exception – telling interesting stories about the places we were visiting as well as their life in their communities.

I decided to walk around the historic parts of Decorah to admire the various homes that had been built by Charles Altfillisch, a famous architect in the area, and others. There is a thriving Historic Preservation society and several different walks around the districts of the town. I was following a map that had been the placemat in the restaurant, but it did serve me well!

The houses I chose to see were mainly on a street known as Broadway and the combination of the sunny warm weather and the fall colors really showed these homes off at their best.

I managed to cover about 3 miles of walking up to various viewpoints and overlooks, and still had time to visit the restored homes and chat to some of the volunteers in the museum – each of which were a mine of information about how people lived in these small wooden houses.

Back in La Crosse, there was not a lot of time before the boat departed at 4:45pm, but I did stroll along the waterfront, admiring this metal bald eagle sculpture created by Elmer Petersen called Eagle’s Landing:

I took the opportunity to capture our boat from the air as it was docked alongside La Crosse port.

And, finally, one of the Purple Heart Memorial Highway bridge carrying the I-90 Alt across the Mississippi River across to Minnesota.

And with that, we departed La Crosse to head south to Dubuque, Iowa.