New Orleans - Day 7

This is our last full day in the States. Tomorrow morning, we will depart from Louis Armstrong International Airport. And I'm still not tired to say it: I WANT TO STAY!!!

We spent our day at a Lakeside Shopping Center. Not much to say about it, just shopping! :-)

Now we're going to have dinner and afterwards pack our bags.

New Orleans - Day 6

Happy biiiiiirthday to me
happy birthday tooooo me
happy birthday dear benny
happy birthday toooooo meeeeeeeeee! :-)

As requestet, I had a birthday breakfast with a very good french toast. Yummy!!!

Since it rained (of course it did, it's my birthday!;-)) we went to the National World War II Museum. It was very interesting and we spent most of the day there.

Afterwards we had dinner in the French Quarter and then I wanted to celebrate in one of the bars with live music. We found a nice one on Bourbon Street. They had one of the finest cover bands that I had ever seen! Even Sonja liked it! :-)
I also discovered a new favorite cocktail, the hurricane! They poured it into 1 liter cups!!!
I can tell you, that drink lives up to it's name! ;-)

New Orleans - Day 5

In the morning, we took a streetcar all the way up to City Park.
Before getting on the streetcar, we saw our first police arrest! I wonder what this guy did...

New Orleans' biggest park is even bigger than Central Park in New York! It has lots of small lakes and it was just nice to take a walk there - even for a walk-grouch like me! ;-)

At the end of our walk we came to the so called Singing Oak. Actually, it's not singing but rather chiming, which is a lot nicer because nobody really wants to hear a tree singing! ;-)

  

After leaving the park, we had ice cream at the oldest ice cream shop in New Orleans. Very goooooood!

And right next door, at Walgreens, they sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts! FINALLY, I got 'em! The best doughnuts available on this planet!

Of course we had to get back to the hotel as soon as possible to eat them there, because when somebody sees you eating them in public, you might be asked to share them. ;-)

We rested for a time in our room and to be fit again for dinner. As you might have already guessed, we eat a lot over here! :-)

We had dinner at Coop's Place, a tiny bar in the French Quarter, which concierge strongly recommended. Affordable good food. I had an awesomely delicious jambalaya there. 

After dinner, we thought it best to go to the movies and since we were a little late (not just because we stopped for dessert at another place ;-)), we took a taxi instead of walking. Arriving at the theater, we were told that the movie was sold out and since the forecast promised us rain for the evening, we decided to go back to our hotel room. Now I'm lying here and guess what hasn't happened yet. Correct, no rain! 

Tomorrow evening I'll celebrate with Sonja at a cocktail bar. NO MATTER WHAT!!! ;-)

New Orleans - Day 4

Today's motto: walking!

We picked two of the walks from our travel guide. The first one was through the Garden disctrict. A residential area with lots of beatiful old houses. Some of them date back to the 19th century. The walk started with the visit of Lafayette Cemetery.

The second walk went through the French quarter. Like during the first walk, Sonja read out the articles that the travel guide provided for every house that was somewhat special. Personally, I don't care who built it and what his issues were! The houses are beautiful and I just enjoyed seeing them!  :-)

New Orleans - Day 3

Happy Easter!

What do good people do on Easter Sunday? Correct, they go to church!
And that is exactly what we did. The man at the front desk of our hotel recommended to go to his church, Beacon Light, and we decided to give it a try.

The Church was packed with people but we were ushered into two available seats. Immediately, we realized, that we were the only white people in there. Awkward? No way! ;-)

Since I'm culturally aware (of course I'm the only one who knew that until now;-)), I didn't take pictures during the service, but this should give you a short impression of what the church looks like.
It's hard to describe what the service was like but for those who saw the first Blues Brothers movie: it's not exactly the same, but close! ;-)

In the afternoon, we took a walk through the city. Of course, I would never walk voluntarily at home, but it's ok for me when I'm on vacation (I use it as a method for finding good food ;-)).
That didn't exactly work out the way I expected it to be. We tried jambalaya and red beans at a low-priced restaurant. It was ok, but nex time we'd rather pay a few bucks more to get better quality.

Aside from that, the buildings in the French Quarter are awesome!

In the early evening, it started to rain and it was pretty windy. So we went back to the hotel early today, which is not the worst idea since the last to days have been very exhausting and we need to be fit for 4 more days! ;-)

New Orleans - Day 2

What a day!

We had a quick breakfast before we got picked up for the tour to Oak Alley Plantation.

We would have liked it to spend the whole day there but we had also booked one of the famous swamp tours. So, after another short meal (lunch) - a banana split - we got on the bus to the swamp....

In the evening, we had dinner out and went to Frenchmen, a street with many live music bars that isn't as overcrowded as Bourbon Street. We even met two of the people from the plantation tour in one of the bars.
It's a small world! :)