The Journal. Los Angeles to Daytona...

Day 12 – Like a Hurricane – Rest Day New Orleans

Today we explored NOLA, as it is expressed locally on the numerous T-shirts that are on sale all around the markets. From having breakfast in the French Quarter at a delightful coffee shop near the hotel, we walked along the shore-line of the Mississippi River to the business district. The river is clearly a working river, with many tugs, barges and ferries skipping along taking goods, materials and passengers to their next stop.

Here, the business district, there are more high rises as well as a Harrah’s Casino at the bottom of the wide boulevard named Canal Street. There could not be more of a contrast between the two districts, colonial balconies that are at most four stories high, garnished with flowers and plants, to the tens of stories, also there is more hustle and bustle in this district, people busying themselves as well as tourists gazing upwards and popping in and out of shops and galleries.

Catching lunch back at the French market, we then headed back to Canal Street to take a streetcar to the
Garden District, west of town this has at its centre the Lafayette Cemetery. Whilst some might consider this macabre this is a walk through history, a reflection of the past NOLA and view into its wealth. Rows upon rows of tombs and mausoleums populate this spot with graves going back to 1862 (the earliest I could find, this is a reminder of how short the American history is, it is only a pity that the older history of the indigenous Americans is not recorded for popular consumption and reflection.

Just south of Lafayette is Magazine Street, very hip with its furniture and fashion boutiques and corner Starbucks, whilst nice with a distinct essence of its own it feels more American strip than what we have seen elsewhere in NOLA. Back to the French Quarter we made the most of our three dollar street car day pass by taking three of these delightfully preserved cars back to the hotel, well almost as their coverage does not penetrate fully into the historic
districts.

Evening dinner was near Jackson Square at the Gumbo Shop, Crawfish and Hurricanes, a rather potent cocktail, a great way to end our stay in the very hospitable New Orleans Louisiana.

Laner
https://acrossusa.wordpress.com/