From Dutch culture in Pella toGerman traditions in the Amana

Colonies, tour planners can stitch to-gether enchanting itineraries flavoredwith Old Country flair. Museum visits,ethnic festivals, shopping forays andlots of good eating lend a taste of Eu-rope to treks across the rolling farm-lands of Iowa.

The Germans were the dominant

non-English-speaking group to settleIowa in the 1800s, and today 52 percentof the population can trace its rootsback to Germany. As a Midwesternerwith great-grandparents who migratedfrom Germany to Eastern Iowa, I wasespecially interested in places with Ger-man roots on my recent trip.

I started by heading to the recentlyrenovated German American Heritage

Center & Museum in Davenport, partof the Quad Cities area of Illinois andIowa. Housed in a former hotel thatcatered to immigrants, the four-storybrick building commands a prime lo-cation on the mighty Mississippi.

A museum highlight is “Step IntoMy Shoes,” where visitors step on afootprint that activates a video screenwith an actor who describes his or her

18 June 2011 LeisureGroupTravel.com

on location: midwest � randy mink

Kalona is the largest Amish settlement west of the Mississippi River.

A few farmers still work their fields with horses.

iowaPockets of European cultureenchant groups touringAmerica’s heartland

ethnic

experience as an immigrant. Six char-acters tell the stories of actual peoplewho made the journey to Iowa.

Visitors also learn about the localGerman-language newspaper (pub-lished for 62 years) and Schuetzen Park,where German-Americans and othersenjoyed the picnic grounds, rollercoaster, shooting ranges, dancing andbeer concessions. One exhibit focuseson the anti-German sentiment fromWorld War I that restricted activities ofGerman-Americans and led to the pro-hibition of speaking German in public.

My Germanic quest continued inthe Amana Colonies, a collection ofseven villages settled by a German re-ligious group that was persecuted forits beliefs. An industrious bunch, theypracticed a communal way of life thatlasted until 1932. Though Amana res-idents are often confused with the

Amish, they are not related, eventhough both groups developed sepa-ratist societies in the mid-1800s inSoutheast Iowa, spoke German anddressed in similar styles. You will notsee horse-drawn buggies in the AmanaColonies, but you will in Kalona, anAmish enclave 30 miles away.

The main activity in the AmanaColonies is strolling down the mainstreet in the village of Amana, poppinginto gift and antique shops and sam-pling tasty treats. At the AmanaWoolen Mill, dating from 1857, see thelooms in operation and choose from avast array of sweaters, scarves and blan-kets. Wineries specialize in such fruitflavors as pomegranate, dandelion andrhubarb. Ronneburg Restaurant, housedin an original communal kitchen, andOx Yoke Inn offer hearty German farelike sauerbraten and wiener schnitzel.

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Kalona, my favorite discovery,claims the largest Amish population(more than 1,200) west of the Missis-sippi. A highlight was exploring thecountryside on a ByWays van tourarranged by the Kalona Historical Vil-lage and Kalona Chamber of Com-merce. Our narrator guide, D. PaulYoder, whose great-grandfather wasOld Order Amish, explained the sim-ple lifestyle of the “plain people” as wetraveled past buggies on gravel roadsand white farmhouses with laundryhanging out to dry. We made two stopsduring the 90-minute tour. At the

Amish-owned Community CountryStore, next to a chicken pen and veg-etable garden on farm property, Ibought a homemade apricot pie. Ourstop at JK Creative Wood & Gifts, aMennonite enterprise, included a tourof the workshop and showroom.

Many groups make a day of it, com-bining their tour with a home-cookedmeal in an Amish or Mennonite homeand a visit to Kalona Historical Village,a collection of three museums and 15buildings (a rail depot, general store,church, one-room school house, etc.)spread across a block in the heart of

town. Galleries in itsmodern visitor centerdisplay historical andcontemporary Amishand English (non-Amish) quilts.

Groups also need timeto wander about down-town Kalona, fresh froma spiffy makeover com-pleted this spring. Visitantique, quilt and otherspecialty shops. Treatyourself to an old-fash-ioned cinnamon roll at the Kalona Bakery.Then take the brandnew Quilt Block Tour.As the “Quilt Capital of Iowa,” little Kalona(pop. 2,363) is now literally “paved” withquilts, its downtownsidewalks embedded with42 quilt patterns madeof colored paving stones.

Iowa’s Dutch her-itage is most evident inPella, about 80 mileswest of Kalona. Ablazewith tulips in April andMay, the tourist-friendlytown offers visitors a

virtual trip to Holland, with gabledbuildings, an authentic Dutch wind-mill, a landscaped canal and places toshop for Delftware and other Dutchimports. The Tulip Time Festival inearly May features parades, specialtours, flower and quilt shows, andDutch-style entertainment.

Danish traditions take center stagein Elk Horn, home of the DanishWindmill Museum. Built in Denmarkin 1848 and transported to Iowa in1975, the mill grinds wheat and rye. A tour includes a 15-minute video. At the site are the largest Danish import shop in the U.S. and a replicaof a Viking blacksmith’s shop. Also intown are the Danish Immigrant Mu-seum and 1908 Bedstemor’s (“Grand-mother’s”) House, furnished to reflectDanish-American tastes in the early20th century. LGT

on location: midwest �

Obtain Iowa visitor

guides and

itineraries – and

contact group-

friendly suppliers

directly – at

leisuregrouptravel.com/instant-info

ONLINE EXCLUSIVEOne of Iowa’s hidden gems is

the Herbert Hoover Presidential

Library & Museum in West Branch. Read

Randy Mink’s story at http://leisuregroup-

travel.com/?p=23756.

The German American Heritage Center

in Davenport has a bright new look.

20 June 2011 LeisureGroupTravel.com