Cedar+Rapids,+IA


 * Travel Tips for Cedar Rapids, IA:**
 * Cedar Rapids Wikitravel Website:** []
 * Cedar Rapids Wikitravel Website:** []

--- Cedar Rapids is located about 100 miles east of Des Moines, and it's the second largest city in Iowa. The airport (Website: [] ) is located just south of the city. You can rent a car from Hertz, Avis, National, or Enterprise. If you prefer Public Transportation, the city of Cedar Rapids has public buses that connect the airport to the city by means of Route 11 (Website: [] ). Fares are $1.25 per ride or an all-day pass is $3.00, which you can purchase from the driver as you board the bus. Look for signs in Baggage Claim that will lead you to the Green and White bus. Here's a website for attractions in Cedar Rapids: []. We used Cedar Rapids as a point to start our trip to Wisconsin. It seems that there are a lot of bike trails in Cedar Rapids. They go through some very scenic areas and are well maintained. It looks like they take you all over town (Trail Maps: [] ). The National Czech and Slovak Museum (Websites: [] and [] ) is an interesting place to study the culture and heritage of the Czech and Slovak settlers who me made a new home for themselves in the broad expanses of Iowa. The Museum is a modern convenient facility with a good research library, gift shop, and an interesting permanent exhibit that details the general history of the Czech and Slovak lands, as well as the immigration of Czechs and Slovaks to America in the 19th century. Generally, Czechs were attracted to rural areas (of which Iowa has an abundance), while Slovaks concentrated in larger urban areas in the midwest - places like Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago. So there's more about the Czechs here.The museum also has space for temporary and travelling exhibits. When we visited, there was an excellent exhibit featuring examples of traditional folk and peasant clothing. Beautiful embroidery, lacework, and fine linens in abundance. We only ate two meals in Cedar Rapids. We enjoyed the chain Granite City Food (Website: [] ) and Brewery. On our return we tried the Tic-Tac-Toe Cafe at 4444 First Avenue NE #545. The appearance was very clean and well kept. Owner greeted us and explained the different sandwiches and specials they had available. They have meat pies, gyros, falafel and other sandwiches as well as a lunch plate of rice and meat. We settled on sharing the falafel combined with hand cut french fries. The falafel was excellent and a very good size portion. The sauce had some spice, and it was delicious. The fries were good as well. We also got a cinnamon, walnut Baklava, and it was very good as well. Total cost for the sandwich, fries, Baklava and can of Diet Coke was $9.60 which was very reasonable. We are looking for forward to trying the meat pies and the gyros someday on our return. Enjoy Cedar Rapids.

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