Our final port of call on this cruise has arrived, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wisconsin is also a state I'd yet to visit so it was great to check off both a new city and a new state on my places yet to travel list. Unfortunately, or fortunately when you think of how full our bus was, none of today's tour involved free sampling any of Wisconsin's famous dairy products. Milwaukee was also our debarkation port so those who wished to explore on their own or go out after a tour had literally the rest of the day and night to do so.
We didn't arrive in Milwaukee until noon so all the tours were held in the afternoon. Two tour options for this port are included, Highlights of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Art Museum. The bulk of our ship chose the Highlights tour with seven buses full of tour groups. Viking did a pretty good job spacing out the buses with the first few leaving at 12:15PM, two more leaving at 12:50PM, and the last two leaving at 1:30PM. The only other tour option chosen was one single group leaving at 2PM for a three hour moderate level Craft Breweries & Distilleries of Milwaukee tour. Perhaps the moderate activity level is how much effort is required to walk after partaking at two craft breweries and a distillery.
After boarding our bus for the start of the Highlights of Milwaukee bus tour, we learned from our guide that we'd be stopping at the Milwaukee Art Museum anyway. The initial premise was to consider it a bathroom stop and a chance to view the unique architecture from outside but several of our fellow passengers also turned it into a gift shop stop. After a bit of delay while our guide had to find the shopping stragglers, we were on our way to the Harley-Davidson Museum. Museum admission normally costs $22 for adults and $18 for seniors. Our admission was covered as part of the included Viking tour. Once inside, we were left on our own to explore with a time to return. There is a bar and restaurant on site and those who used their time to partake raved about the Cheese Curd appetizer.
If you're a car/motorcycle enthusiast, you will enjoy your time at this museum. There are several very extensive displays chronicling the advances in style and technology as well as hands on exhibits.
Here is Dad testing out the display on balance and motion:
Along with a display of engines you could test your knowledge identifying the right ones by their sounds.
It was interesting to see all of the practical uses for Harley Davidson's past motorcycles like mail delivery and use by the military.
These bikes were mounted sideways along a curved wall resembling racing around a dirt track. The wall had rotating images of actual races playing around the mounted bikes.
Just like cars, you can get a rainbow of color options as displayed by this wall of colorful gas tanks.
In case you're a Harley Davidson fan who lives in the northern US during wintertime, they also made snowmobiles. And the matching suit for you to wear.
Perhaps the precursor to CHIPS (California Highway Patrol) - I see that reminder of not blocking the cross streets was needed back then as well!
Our last exhibit was to a room filled with different styles of motorcycles you were encouraged to climb on for photos and to imagine yourself racing along with the video playing on the screen in front.
With some time to kill, we briefly browsed the adjacent gift shop next door to the museum. If you're a rider and/or collector, you could easily spend tons of money in this shop. Everything from leather pants and jackets to souvenir items like pins and mugs.
Once everyone was back on the bus, I was surprised to hear how many passengers were trying to convince our guide to either skip or shorten the last stop of the Pabst Mansion. Perhaps being the end of an active cruise left a lot of people tired at this point or they simply only cared about the Harley Davidson museum. The guide insisted that she had to stick exactly to the plan but compromised by offering to drive back by the Milwaukee Public Market to drop people off who wanted to shop on the way back to the ship.
While you are welcome to go inside the mansion and enjoy a sample of room temperature beer, only a small group of people bothered to do so. The docent led tour takes 60 minutes or you can do a self guided tour. The guided tour normally costs $17 for adults and $15 for seniors while the self guided tour is a little cheaper at $15 and $13 respectively. Some even opted to stay on the bus entirely. The rest of us hopped out for a leg stretch, outside picture taking, and a browse of the gift shop about half a block's walk up the street.
Walking up the long driveway is a great way to work off that Mamsen's waffle. This is the view from the sidewalk. The mansion's three floors are fully accessible for those with mobility issues via an elevator.
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