Segway to Kansas City! We had no idea how much fun and how interesting a Segway tour of Kansas City’s Union Station would be. We absolutely loved it and it was one of our favorite things about Kansas City!
The weather was perfect, which was unusual because every other day of the trip the wind was relentless. The Segway store is right inside Union Station and after a brief tutorial on how to start and stop we were zipping around Union Station like we’d been doing it for years, well at least minutes!
Our tour guide gave us interesting commentary about the history of Union Station. The building itself was awesome and it had been renovated in recent years. Riding a Segway through such a historic building gave us the feeling of “Back to the Future” … The station originally opened in 1914 and was the second-largest train station in the country. The building is massive, 850,000 square feet to be exact, and the ceiling 95 feet high.
It truly is an elegant building, reflective of days gone by. There are huge chandeliers each weighing 3,500 pounds. There is also the famous six ft in diameter “Grand Hall” clock that is know for the marriage proposals that took place beneath it.
An interesting piece of history our guide pointed out to us was a bullet hole still in the exterior wall from the Kansas City Massacre in 1933 when four unarmed FBI agents were gunned down.
We drove our Segways to the National World War I Museum and Monument, the Liberty Memorial where we had the most amazing view from high atop a hill.
Today, Union Station has two trains daily (among Amtrak’s busiest stations) and is home to a variety of restaurants, museums, theaters and exhibits.
After taking the Segway Tour we think it’s probably the ONLY way to see any city!