Today, we toured the old Eureka Springs. When we took a trolley tour in Savannah, GA, we learned that trolley tours can really be a great way to see a city. We were not disappointed with today's trolley tour of Eureka Springs. To quote from Wikipedia: "The city has steep winding streets filled with Victorian-style cottages and manors.

 

The old commercial section of the city has an alpine character, with an extensive street-scape of well-preserved Victorian buildings. The buildings are primarily constructed of local stone and lie along streets that curve around the hills and rise and fall with the topography in a five-mile long loop. Some buildings have street-level entrances on more than one floor. Eureka Springs has historically been called "The Little Switzerland of America" and "The Stairstep Town" because of its mountainous terrain and the winding, up-and-down paths of its streets and walkways. The streets wind around the town, and no two intersect at a 90 degree angle; there are no traffic lights".

One stop along the way was the Cresent Hotel.

It was completed in 1886 after 2 years of construction. The group of men that decided to build it thought it should be built using the same techniques that were employed in Great Brittan to build castles. So, they brought over masons from Ireland to build it. One of the masons fell from the roof into room 218, was killed by the fall and is said to haunt that room. There are other ghost reports, as well. If you stay there, ask for room 218 and tell us all about it! There is more history to this hotel than I have typing skills to display. Read all about it here: Crescent Hotel
On the 4th floor of the hotel, you can get a great view of the surrounding mountains. Over on one of those mountains is a huge statue of Christ. Clicky thingy 

I used a telephoto lens to get this picture.

This is where they hold the Passion Play which is an outdoor play performed in an amphitheater about Christ.
 After the hotel, we continued through town and stopped at one of several springs that originally brought people here. As soon as you stepped down inside, you could feel how much cooler it was in there. Natural air conditioning! Many people believed the spring water had powerful healing properties. They drank and bathed in the water and many ailments were cured. Of course, it may be that they left dirty polluted cities, drank a lot of good mineral water, ate better natural foods, and got a lot of fresh air and exercise from walking all over the city! 

 Here the tour guide tells us about the springs and how the city has them had to cover them to prevent people from drinking the water directly from them.The reason...if someone got sick from the water, they could sue the city. Sad but true. 

The tour continued through the city and we saw other springs and many beautiful homes and shops along the way. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and made it an enjoyable tour.

After the trolley tour, we went to the Thorncrown Chapel. Here is the link This chapel is made of wood and glass. It has 425 windows! Id sure hate to be the window cleaner!

This is the view looking forward.

 The view looking straight up at the roof.

 This is the slate floor.

 

So, that was it for today! You can see all of the pics we took today at the following link: This is the link