Traveling through the US - Minneapolis (11/22 – 11/24/12)

It is Thanksgiving weekend and instead of going home to our families like all American people Jan and I decided to use these holidays for some vacation in Minneapolis. Our first adventure started already at the rental car company where we got an upgrade from an economy car (I don’t believe they even have one economy car) to a huuuuuge Chevrolet Suburban. We had DVD players in the back, more space than ever in any other car and felt like driving a panzer. The bad thing about it: its gasoline usage => “affordable” 18l/100Km.

We made it safe and sound to Minneapolis but during our trip to the north the temperature decreased on and on. When we arrived there it already came down to nearly 0°F and during the night it should get even colder to a minimum of -6°F (roughly -17°C?). Because of these low temperatures and the wind which made it even colder we decided to explore the city via the skywalks. It was too bad that a lot of doors there were closed due to Thanksgiving and in the end we had to go back using the streets in the cold. 

Back in our hotel we changed our minds and ordered a pizza for delivery instead of using the reservation for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. We simply didn’t wanted to go back into the cold again that night. And in addition in that way we were able to relax a little for our planned shopping tour on Black Friday in the Mall of America (see extra article). On Friday it was still cold but not that bad as it was the night before. We explored the city and its shops; I found my absolutely favorite of Minneapolis: the Frozen Yoghurt Lab where I got a bowl of Vanilla- and Nutella-Yoghurt with crushed KidKat. That was so good, I really hope that I will find something similar again back home.

Later we went to the Mall of America again, this time with the train. The funny thing was that there were less people during the day there than in the night before. After finishing our shopping we watched the “Hollidazle”, a Christmas parade in downtown Minneapolis.

We finished the day with some really good Greek food and some wine. On Saturday we already had to go back to Iowa City in the early evening. So instead of spending another day exploring the city and its stores we ended up at Ikea to find out, if the store is similar to ours in Germany. And yes, it mostly is ;-) In the afternoon we used the remaining time to visit the science museum of Minnesota. It was quite interesting but a lot of parts where more prepared for a younger crowd than us. A lot of school classes and teachers visit the museum and the kids can do some small experiments to teach themselves about several fields of science.