Well here we are. We woke up to find there had been a slight sprinkling of snow overnight and the temperature outside was  -3degC. Pretty chilly, glad I brought my hat.
Checked the weather forecast, set to be cold all day. Mind you the forecast for tomorrow suggested it is going to get warmer, with a high of 32degC!!! Yes we did check it was Centigrade not Farenheit. What sort of crazy place is this?
Since John didn’t have to report in for his conference until 5pm we thought we’d all have a little walk together. We are at the Grand Hyat between 17th and 18th Street (the Americans do seem to have this fixation with grid patterns and road numbering) and that’s just one block away from the 16th Street Mall, 2 1/2 miles of road that has been pedestrianised, lined on both sides with bars, restaurants, shops and shopping centres. We walked to one end, to the Capitol building, there was a super view from the top of the steps, all the way to the Rockies.
I had been getting rather breathless, and no wonder, the air is rather thin ‘cos Denver is the Mile High City. The 18th step of the Capitol Building is 1 mile above sea level, that’s me sitting just above the bronze disc marking the spot.
There is a frequent free bus service that runs along the 16th Street Mall, with stops at every block, so we thought we’d take it to the far end and then meander our way back.
At the far end of the mall is the most wonderful bookshop. Borders has been relegated to second place in my and Marias’ estimation by The Tattered Cover Bookstore. Not only does it have four floors of books it’s also full of nooks and crannies with tables, chairs, sofas… where you can browze to your hearts content while sipping a coffee (or in Marias case a hot chocolate) and tucking into a blueberry muffin.
Â
We spent a happy half hour or so, but then John got restless, we will certainly be coming back without him. We then popped into the visitor centre to find out what Maria and I can do while John is working. They were VERY helpful and we came away with stacks of leaflets, we’d need 4 weeks not 4 days to get through it all. John is still having problems with his ankle so we took the bus back to where we started from and went back to the hotel to regroup and take stock.
Maria and I have booked a coach tour to the foothills of the Rockies and a visit to Buffalo Bills grave and Museum at Lookout Point . We’re also going to try for the theatre. John had rested a bit by now and we also fancied something to eat. Maria had spotted The Cheesecake Factory on the 16th Street Mall, we had heard about their fantastic selection of cheesecakes so we felt this would be an excellent place to eat. I don’t think John was so keen but when they offered him blackened salmon as the lunchtime special he seemed very happy. Denver is supposed to be the thinnest city in the US but I don’t know how. We had the SMALL lunchtime portion of meatloaf and we still couldn’t finish it. We shared a slice of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake between the three of us and bought a slice of Kahlua Mocha Cheesecake to take out. It’ll be lovely this evening after a Ceasar salad from room service. John’s off to a Hawaiian Luau (I think that’s how it’s spelt) you should have seen his Hawaiian shirt!
John had to rush back for a staff briefing and Maria and I strolled back (tryin to walk off the cheescake). Denver is a lovely city from what we’ve seen, wide open spaces, very clean and very friendly people. All in all a nice day, we shall have to go back to the Tattered Cover and of course The Cheesecake Factory, they do 48 different cheesecakes and we’ve only tried 2 so far.