5. LOUISIANA

NEW ORLEANS (April 1st -6th)

After an easy flight with typical American efficiency, we landed in New Orleans late afternoon and were immediately hit by a hot and humid 28 degrees as we stepped outside the airport. It was also nice to see lots of palm trees lining the roads. After a quick Uber ride we checked into the Hilton Doubletree, a 350 room hotel smack bang in the middle of New Orleans and just a few minutes walk from the famous French Quarter.

We agreed to meet up in an hour and head out for a walk and something to eat. The very nice lady on reception pointed us in the direction of the Creole restaurant which was supposed to be fab, so we decided to go for that. What a place this was, very lively and noisy and we were seated on a table upstairs. We ordered some typical Louisiana food, cajun style chicken jambalaya and blackened fish, very nice indeed.

On the way back to our hotel it was still very warm and humid and we could hear the jazz and hip hop music blaring from all the bars and shops but having had a long day doing very little we were all knackered (you know how it is) so we went back to the hotel in preparation for a big day tomorrow.

We ventured out in the sunshine with our tried and tested strategy of finding and taking an open top hop on hop off bus tour around the city. We found the stop, downloaded the app so we could track the buses and we were on our way.

What a city New Orleans is, an incredible vibe and blend of French, Spanish, African and American culture and history. Obviously it’s famous for its food, jazz music and the Mississippi river, but it also has some amazing architecture, particularly in areas like the French Quarter and Garden district. It’s a must do if you ever get to visit the USA and have the time. The bus tour lasted around 90 mins, was very good and gave us lots of facts along the way.

We hopped off and went for a coffee in one of the multitude of cafes and restaurants while listening to a jazz singer and her band playing. Then it was time for a walking tour of Spanish and French areas, which came as an add on with our bus tour package.

We met up with our tour guide Chris, a neat and tidy young man, who proceeded to take us and a few other keen tourists around the narrow streets while furnishing us with some important facts. Chris wore some dollar bills like a medallion on his breast pocket and we guessed it was his unique way of saying ‘give me a tip’, rather than just shaking a can. After about 5 mins we quickly realised that Chris obviously thought we had all signed up for a Masters degree in New Orleans Colonial Architecture. The level of detail he was going into was astonishing from, who built this and that church or building (there were some unbelievably long names in Spanish & French that he just rolled out), who they were married to, what they liked for dinner, the composition of all the building materials involved in the construction and who was the project manager. We thought it was going to be a nice leisurely walk around the streets and now we were starting to get worried that Chris was going to make us sit a 3 hour exam at the end.

It was so boring that we decided that for the rest of the trip, if anybody went into way too much detail on a particular topic, it would be labelled a ‘Chris’.

At the end of the tour, thankfully there was no exam, but we were all mentally exhausted as if we’d sat one anyway. We quietly sloped off and couldn’t even bring ourselves to give Chris a tip, even for his medallion, as we thought he should be paying us for the torture of listening to him.

We walked back to the hotel, still a bit dazed and then for dinner, we went to a unique Asian themed restaurant and had some amazing food mostly in a Korean style / flavour. Tomorrow, which was Good Friday, we were looking forward to our steam boat cruise along the Mississippi.

Before that though, Ang & Ian were woken early by doors opening and closing in quick succession outside their room. Upon investigation they found out that Den & Keith had changed rooms because Den had seen a mouse (ha, ha). Upon hearing Den’s screams, Keith, who had leapt out of bed like a cat, had overturned everything in the room but still couldn’t find the mouse. Den however, was adamant she had seen one and wanted to move rooms. Now we were not exactly slumming it here as we mentioned above, we were staying in a Hilton hotel in downtown New Orleans, so it was a bit surprising to have a ‘mouse in the house’! At breakfast, Den gave an accurate description of the mouse and from this we produced the following sketch that Den approved as a close likeness.

After his disturbed night, a fired up Keith had been to the front desk to report on Mouse Gate, arrange a new room and also seek some form of compensation. Reception informed him that in New Orleans, this type of event can occur given the extreme humidity and the fact that many of the buildings are built on swamp land. Keith was having none of that though and he successfully negotiated free breakfast for all of us for the remainder of the trip and was also refunded last nights room cost (great job). He didn’t even need to play his trump card of threatening to call the New Orleans public health authority to tell them the Doubletree hotel had a mouse infestation!

After breakfast and lots more mouse jokes, we set off to have a quick look at the Caesars Superdome home of the NFL team the New Orleans Saints. The stadium has an incredible free standing concrete dome for a roof, the largest of its type in the world! The stadium capacity is 83,000 and it’s held multiple Super Bowl games and WWE (wrestling) events. It’s an amazing building.

From there we caught the hop on hop off bus to the Winston Churchill statue by the river (for a few pics) and then took a nice leisurely stroll along the river to join our lunch cruise aboard the Natchez steam boat. After a bit of a wait, we boarded and were shown to our table which was decorated in a splendid white cloth with coloured sashes, flowers and some free fun gifts. As our table was the only one that looked like this (we booked a good package) the other guests were seen quickly ‘googling’ Ang’s name from the table reserved sign to see if she was some sort of celebrity or Lady Hoo Ha.

The Louisiana style food was amazing (including a delicious bread and butter pudding) along with the drinks and it wasn’t long before we set off along the Mississippi for a nice cruise in the glorious sunshine. We went up to the top deck found some seats overlooking the river and had a relaxing couple of hours listening to the jazz music, very nice indeed.

After disembarking we found a nice bar with a balcony, had a few drinks and played a few games of cards while watching the hive of activity in the streets below. Then we had a nice surprise as a traditional Louisiana wedding party came past playing trombones and dancing in the street, lovely. We stayed there for a while then decided we’d better not go back to hotel, as we would just crash, so we looked for somewhere to eat and found a great little place called Mr Ed’s Diner and had a traditional Louisiana Po’ boy with cat fish (basically like a subway), it was very tasty.

On the Saturday, after a lie in for us, we had a late’ ish breakfast around 9-30 before setting off for the National WW2 museum. This thing was huge, over seven buildings to explore. It tells the story of the American experience in WW2, why it was fought and how it was won and what it means for the generations of today (so that we all understand the price of freedom and are inspired by those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us). It had a couple of I – max theatres showing impressive short movies, loads of individual stories, artefacts, maps, weapons, uniforms, planes, you name it, they had it. There was even a large section devoted to the atomic bomb and how it was developed. So, if you are interested in that sort of thing then you could easily spend a day or three there, we lasted around 4 hours.

We had a chill back at the hotel before heading out to a ‘boujee’ steak and fish restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel for a very, very nice dinner.

Easter Sunday, was all about the Easter parades, a tradition in New Orleans. Before that, after breakfast, Ang & Den decided they needed a pamper so they decided to have a bit of a massage and some reflexology for their aching feet. It wasn’t as good as Thailand they said (not surprising, as they had about 10 while they were there!) After they returned we all set out to find the parades.

Now that’s easier said than done as the French quarter is a multitude of little streets and finding where the route started and ended was not straightforward. We asked at one of the tourist visitor shops and the guy behind the desk said he didn’t know! Nice one mate, what exactly do you do in your job then? In the end we followed the crowd and more importantly the noise and found a great little spot to watch the parade go by. It was still 28 degrees but raining a little but that didn’t seem to dampen any spirits at all. It was good fun with all the dancing, music and lots of floats. We had the Elvis’s, the hip hop dancing girls and lots more. They were also very generous with their free gifts, throwing plenty out from the floats into the crowd. We had a sackful, but alas, we had to leave most of them for the housekeeper as we couldn’t fit everything in the cases due to Ang & Den’s shopping (chuckle).

After the parade we found a cafe and tried some of the very famous beignets which are basically rectangular doughnuts (without the hole), covered in icing sugar and a lot nicer. These are a massive favourite in New Orleans and a must try, but you can’t have too many because if you do you won’t be eating much else for a while. An added bonus was the live jazz band playing in the cafe.

Lastly, we headed out to yet another steak and fish restaurant for another Louisiana style dinner.

The next day, Easter Monday, we checked out of the hotel and reflected on this amazing city. We had crammed a lot in starting with the city tour, a degree in Colonial Architecture, a steamboat lunch cruise up the Mississippi, the WW2 museum, the Easter parades, loads of traditional and famous New Orleans food and drink, lots of jazz music and of course we had ‘Mouse Gate’. It was a blast.

Our next stop is a 6 hour drive away to Memphis Tennessee, Graceland and the home of the one and only Mr Elvis Aaron Presley and we can’t wait for that.