Since I was about 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled meeting in the trendy East Village in downtown Des Moines, I decided to walk to the Iowa State Capitol to redeem my unexpected free-travel-minutes. From the East Village, the Capitol’s colossal five-dome structure, fused with bravura architectural details, and its magnificent golden dome looked like a gigantic democracy fortress of sort with Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 soundlessly sounded in the background. Pretty imposing, I thought.

The Iowa State Capitol, located in the state capital of Des Moines, was constructed between 1871 and 1886 to replace an old five-story brick building that was then housing the Iowa legislature. The current capitol building features five domes, Grand Staircase, Senate Chamber, House of Representatives’ Chamber, State Library, Capitol Café, and display cases of gowns belonged to 42 first ladies of Iowa and battle flags from the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I. Featured art works include mosaic panels created by Frederick Dielman and statuses in the rotunda created by S. Cottin.