Tag Archives: decorah iowa

May 6, 2013 · 10:03 pm

Air B&B options and the newTrout Run Trail in Decorah Iowa

I finally got around to joining Air B&B and found two good options in Decorah, including Fern Hollow Cabin, (they’re both in old log cabins), where we hope to go this weekend to ride bikes on the new Trout Run Trail which looks incredibly cool. Opened in September 2011, the trail is  an 11-mile loop around this outdoorsy northeast Iowa city, snaking along the Upper Iowa River (our favorite canoeing river in Iowa) and adorned with public art/sculptures. It runs past Luther College, the Decorah Trout Fishery (home of the famous Decorah eagles, whose nesting via webcam captivated a worldwide audience last year…word has it the eagles have moved on. We saw a spectacular eagle in flight near a nest in Gray’s Lake Park in Des Moines yesterday!)

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October 31, 2012 · 11:16 pm

take me to Spillville Iowa for some crazy clocks

Clocks

Inside view of the museum

I was writing a travel story about Iowa for a in-flight magazine last week and it dawned on me that I need to get to Spillville Iowa sometime. It’s a tiny town in northeast Iowa not far from one of my favorite cities – Decorah – and it has this interesting museum full of massive wooden clocks handcarved by two Czech Bohemian farmers during many a long winter during the early 1900’s. One clock pay homage to Charles Lindburgh’s historic flight, another – the apostle clock – features the 12 apostles who appear on the hour! Can’t miss that. Adding to the oddity, this is also the house where Czech composer Antonin Dvorak lived briefly in 1893 – long enough the compose a well-known string quintet there. The museum has an exhibit of some of his stuff. Interesting combo…

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August 3, 2010 · 11:15 pm

More on Decorah, Iowa

Just for the record, we tried a few other restaurants along Water Street in Decorah – good sandwiches (although not the swiftest service) at Ede’s Gourmet and the Angry Pickle Deli (although I didn’t get an pickle, angry or not); and potent wake-me-up coffee and light not-too-sweet lemon poppy muffin tops at Java John’s, a welcoming,  bright and cheerful coffee house (vs. a dark, smokey,  grumpy, surly or hipper-than-thou coffee house, I’ve been to them all.)

Would have tried the sophisticated Rubaiyat:Food for Thought restaurant again (I had a great hamburger at the bar there last year) if it had been open Sunday night. We also dropped by the lovely Hotel Winneshiek which seems to be holding its own. (I always worry about these beautifully restored luxury boutique hotels in small towns after watching the exceptional Hotel Pattee in Perry, Ia. struggle.)

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