One of the things that I am finding very confusing about being here in the South is the sunrise and sunset times.
Sunrise is 6.45am and sunset 4.30pm, so by 6.00pm I feel like I should be crawling into bed. Having walked almost 15,000 steps today only supports that feeling of weariness.
The weather today was a warm start again. We got into The Don II and pointed him at Nashville downtown for a day of exploring the city.
Jolene was reporting a number of road closures in and around the CBD which was a little confusing for a Saturday morning … but Jolene knows best.
We headed down the I-40 (I think … they all look alike to me …) and noticed how gloomy and foggy it seemed. Not a good start for a day of walking around the city.
Jolene turned out to be absolutely correct about road closures. She routed us a different way again to what we are used to, but found our favourite car park exactly where it is supposed to be.
I took my ticket from the machine and hit traffic. Inside the car park. We did a slow crawl all the way up to L5 which seemed a bit odd – I’ve never parked above L2 previously.
We got out of the car and started our walk only to find that there was a Christmas parade on today with some major streets blocked … so we stopped to watch the parade for a while.
After watching that parade for maybe 30 minutes, we went up to the Ryman Auditorium for our backstage tour. Our Sightseeing Pass entitled us to the self-guided tour, but we paid the extra $10 each for the guided tour – well worth it.
We saw all of the usual backstage stuff including dressing rooms, stage, etc.
The Ryman started out life as a church, built in the 1890s and is known for it’s amazing acoustics. It is also the home of the Grand Ole Opry which is a weekly music show that brings together seasoned performers and new talent as part of a radio show.
The building was disused for approximately 20 years and was facing demolition, but a number of big-name performers (including Dolly Parton) led the charge to have the Ryman brought back to its original glory and restored. It is now a listed historical building.
It still has all of the original pews … a bit uncomfortable for a long show, but apparently they enhance the sound quality in the building.
We have heard that many performers would rather perform at the 2,362 seat auditorium than at a much larger venue – because of the acoustics and the sense of being connected with the audience.
After the tour we had a quick lunch (fried chicken on a waffle … yum … but we won’t be discussing it here) and then went over to the Music City Walk of Fame park where famous music celebrities have a star in the pavement.
We then wandered over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Lots of crazy going on with Webb Pierce’s car, complete with pistols as door handles and a saddle in the centre console.
After all of that excitement, we did a final wander around to see the last of the Nashville sights including GooGoo’s Clusters …
… yes, we did buy some, and no, we are not bringing any home :(.
We crossed over the veterans bridge …
… and then had a bit of a walk around the city, specifically down Broadway which is where all of the bars and venues are located.
We went into some bars to listen to some live music …
Honestly, the music in those bars was so loud that the beat of the drums and bass guitar could be felt through the concrete floors. It could probably re-start your heart if you had cardiac issues …
MBW wanted to look at some boots …
… and then we went to look at a full size replica of the Parthenon which was built in 1896 as part of the Centennial exhibition and celebrations in Nashville TN. Pretty impressive stuff!
Final stop for the night was the Nashville Farmers Market where we had some dinner … no, not fried chicken, but BBQ 🙂
The little girl in the photo above photo-bombed me … but she was cute so we let her get away with it 🙂
That about wraps up Nashville TN – it’s been a fun place to visit and we would have loved to stay longer. It has some incredible history and the Ryman Auditorium – “The Mother Church of Country Music” – is a place that I’d love to go back to and see some more performances.
I hope that you are enjoying tagging along.
We are heading off to Memphis tomorrow so that should be a blast too.
We will be in Country Music territory for a bit longer yet, so I hope that you continue to enjoy the music choices.
Today’s song is Work Up in Nashville (Seth Ennius).
Ciao
#G&KTAKEUSA2019