The cruise down the Mississippi from St Paul in Minnesota to New Orleans continues. We arrived in Dubuque from La Crosse, Wisconsin around 10am on a lovely fall day. Completely calm river and mist still hanging over the river and the valleys around the town. We weren’t the only boat in town this time – the American Symphony was already docked and I noticed this interesting view of reflections in the water as we glided under the road bridge towards it:
I think you probably get the picture now – I spend a lot of time strolling around the deck looking for interesting photo opportunities and this time I noticed a fisherman in his boat appearing out of the mists above the river. Lovely!
There were a number of optional tours, including one to the Field of Dreams that others seemed to enjoy. We had chosen the included tour which was a combination of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and a guided shuttle that took us to various highlights in the town. We decided to take the first coach and get off at the St Luke’s Methodist church to see their collection of Tiffany stained glass windows. Volunteers from the church were on hand to give us an interesting explanation of how the Tiffany windows came to be here in Dubuque and how they had had them cleaned for the first time in 2002 since their installation from 1896 to 1931. I must admit that the windows are dramatic with beautiful colors and details and a couple of them have the signature of Louis Tiffany in the corner. The church has 9 large Tiffany windows and 9 small ones, and I carefully photographed each one as we were touring the interior of the church. This window is above the altar:
And, to the side of the aisles is this collection of three windows on the North wall with the Ascension of Christ in the center. This was also installed in 1896.
If you are interested in seeing more of these windows, the full set of images can be seen here in my store.
We then waited for the shuttle to take us to the next exciting location… This time, the steepest, shortest railway in the world that takes you up the hillside to a residential area. The Fenelon Place Elevator was installed in 1893 and it seems to look like it did when it was installed! Our small carriage had a faulty door closing mechanism and so we carefully pulled the doors to as it began its ride up the incline. The journey was free for Viking guests!
The view from the top is spectacular as you see the entire city laid out with the Mississippi river and the Illinois coastline in the distance.
I got the impression that Dubuque has had some hard times, although the city is rebuilding itself and getting some life. I must admit that the streets were pretty quiet as we waited what seemed like an eternity for the shuttle to arrive to take us back to the boat. The final point of interest was the Museum that was easy to walk to from the boat and harbor.
After lunch, I decided to walk as far as I could along the riverbank walk and past this delightful old brewery. I was tempted to visit, but photography came first!
Further along was the Dubuque Railroad bridge with a swing span that had opened to allow us to continue down the Mississippi. This original version was built in 1868 by Andrew Carnegie (although maybe it was just his money!) and then rebuilt in the 1890s to take the railway from Iowa to Illinois. Here is a view nicely framed by trees!
On the way back past the old shot tower where molten lead was dropped over a great distance to create round balls for guns, the Grand River Conference Center and the waterpark I took the time to take some drone shots of the boat in Dubuque harbor:
I did take a separate stroll to the Mississippi River Museum by that inner harbor. I believe this is closed off in winter and then it freezes over to create a great ice-skating opportunity. In older days, the ice was cut into blocks and stored to cool things off in the summer.
The boat departed just before sunset, giving one more opportunity to walk the decks and capture the waterfront of Dubuque as the sun set in the west.
The next port of call is Davenport in Iowa.
