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A Tale of Two Cities: Travels to Louisville

A city in the distance with bridges in the midground and foreground.
Louisville, as seen from the Big Four Bridge. Sometimes a new place is much like home.

I have traveled to Louisville, Kentucky twice for the Imaginarium Convention, and managed some sightseeing in the process. East on Interstate 64 for about a four-hour drive, Louisville’s fondness for fleur-de-lis emblems reminded me of my home base, St. Louis, and got me thinking about the parallels between these two river cities. The easy drive takes you across the Illinois prairie, then through the hilly terrain of the Hoosier National Forest of southern Indiana. This is wine country, and you might want to schedule a stop for lunch. Alert: Time travel happens somewhere along here. St. Louis is in the Central Time Zone; Louisville is in the Eastern. Once you cross the Ohio River, you’re in Louisville.

Booze and Brews

The bourbon culture is strong in Louisville, while beer rules St. Louis. You can visit at least ten different distilleries or even make a trail of it, starting at the Frazier History Museum. I only visited Copper & Kings Distillery, which specializes in brandy and liquors other than bourbon. The facility is beautiful and the tour interesting, especially the aging room for the barrels, where they play music to keep the liquors agitated. Tastings, of course, are available, and a nice, on-site restaurant is usually open (just not on the day of my visit).

red brick building. Distillery . Copper and Kings
Copper & Kings, Louisville, Kentucky

St. Louis will host you to the “king of beers” Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour, as well as numerous microbreweries and brewpubs. (Shout out to my friends at Bluewood Brewery!) If you enjoy learning how everyday objects are made, the brewery tour is a great behind-the-scenes look at one of the most iconic beer brands in the world. Free samples! And the pretzels are the best.

Baseball

Louisville doesn’t have a major league baseball team, but the minor league Louisville Bats plays at Louisville Slugger Field. Louisville’s greatest claim to baseball fame is the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory. (Get it? Baseball Bats?) I didn’t get to a Bats game, but the tour of the baseball bat factory is fascinating and informative. They give you a mini bat to take home, and it looks like you (or the kids) could do some real damage with it, so be careful! The site also includes a baseball museum with engaging, interactive displays. Guests are invited to (carefully) hold the most revered artifacts of America’s traditional past time. Both my husband and I choose Babe Ruth’s bat as our brush with greatness.

Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory with giant bat
Louisville Slugger Factory. (Photo courtesy Thelys Brown.)

St. Louis is home to the National League baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, once owned by Anheuser-Busch Brewery. The Cardinals play at the downtown Busch Stadium.

And there is a Cardinal connection with Louisville: The Louisville minor league baseball team was once associated with the St. Louis Cardinals and called the Louisville Cardinals. Now, the Louisville Cardinals are a college baseball team, the University of Louisville’s varsity intercollegiate baseball program.

Riverboats

Louisville has several excursion riverboat rides, harkening back to Louisville’s steamboat era.[1]

Riverboats plied the Mississippi from points south, making St. Louis a major transportation hub in the nineteenth century. Now, recreational boat rides are available from the riverfront area just below the Gateway Arch.

Boxers

One of Louisville’s famous sons is heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali. We visited both the Muhammad Ali Center and Ali’s burial site at Cave Hill Cemetery, on two separate trips.

memorial green grass and red flowers. Mohammed Ali, Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisiville.
Mohammed Ali’s burial site, Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky.

The only boxer to gain Ali’s world heavyweight title through a win in the ring was St. Louis’s Leon Spikes, in 1978. Ali retrieved the heavyweight crown in a rematch later that year.

Painting of boxer punches out toward viewer
Across from the Ali Center, Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo courtesy Thelys Brown.)

If you found A Tale of Two Cities interesting, you might enjoy reading The Setting of a Story or the whiskey-warehouse setting of “The Angel’s Share,” a free short story bonus with a subscription to my newsletter.

woman in model T with liquor barrels

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[1] Tim Talbott, “Louisville’s Steamboat Era,” ExploreKYHistory, accessed August 22, 2023, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/461.