Road Trip to Des Moines - The State Capitol
Thursday was our Big Day. We got up early, took advantage of the better-than-average free breakfast in the lobby, and were checked out by 9am. Our first adventure of the day was a tour of the spectacular state capitol. This has to be the best tourist deal in Iowa - the tour guide obviously loves his job and the whole thing was free. It really is quite a building. If Minnesota thinks it's going to catch up with Iowa in the upcoming capitol building renovation I hope they have invested in a ton of gold leaf.
The first floor looks pretty much like any stately government building if you don't peer too closely at the ornamentation on the ceilings and door frames.
But once you head up the stairs to the 2nd floor things get really out of hand. Those hand-painted frescoes around the top of the rotunda representing "the functions of government" are a great example of what happens when the repressed sexuality of the Victorian era meets classical art under the guise of sober civic reflection.
The hike between the House and Senate Chambers is decorated with incredibly elaborate Italian-made mosaics, topped with more gilding. The Chambers themselves do not disappoint.
Our tour guide informs us that this is "the most photographed law library in the world." I'm not surprised. All it needs is an orangutan librarian to make it complete. Click through on this picture to see the incredible spiral staircase that appears to be the only way to reach the stacks on the upper level. There's another one just like it at the other end of the library.
And finally, if you have the stamina, you can run up a completely different spiral staircase (103 steps!) to the Whispering Gallery way up under the dome. I went up - Richard waited below.
