We arrived in New Orleans via Orlando about 1300 on Tuesday. It is a lot colder in New Orleans, jumpers and coats were needed. We got a shuttle to the hotel, the Mazarin which is in the French Quarter.
According to Lonely Planet, This area was passed back and forth between France, Spain and England. After the American Revolution the whole area passed to the USA in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, and Louisiana became a state in 1812. The town of Nouvelle Orléans was founded as a French outpost in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. The Spanish were largely responsible for building the French Quarter as it still looks today because fires in 1788 and 1794 decimated the earlier French architecture. The influx of Anglo-Americans after the Louisiana Purchase led to an expansion of the city into the Central Business District (CBD), Garden District and Uptown. Canal street which divided the French Quarter from the American districts is the one of the widest roadways in America to be classified as a street.
The hotel is a posh one that Linda chose, the room is very exquisite, it has old furniture but plenty of room. There is only one bed, so we will have to share it, although it is a king so there will be plenty of room in the middle. We dropped the luggage off and went for a walk. We had a wander around, Linda did not listen to my advice regarding a coat and went out with just a cardigan, I had my wooly jumper - I had read the weather forecast. We walked around, ending up in Canal Street and then along the river front, watching the big boats on the Mississippi. We are now two hours behind San Juan time so it became confusing about when to eat. We were hungry so we found a nice cafe, the Palace Cafe, more Mayfair than greasy spoon cafe according to the prices. I had catfish covered in pecans with rice, Linda had a cheeseburger with chips. Not only that she had a desert, pecan pie with ice cream. I had a spoonful but it was too sweet for me. After this we wandered back to the hotel via a supermarket. We were told it was a couple of blocks away, a slight exaggeration it was more like half a mile! After buying some fruit we had to walk back again. According to the app we have covered about 3 miles today.
After a spoonful of desert I needed to work out so as soon as we got back to the hotel I was in the gym! Linda made some excuse about her sun burn hurting so she could not come down there, although she did wander down to check what I was doing! Breakfast was included at the hotel so we had a nice start to the day, bagels and egg for me (carbs and protein - very important). I had already been for a four mile run around New Orleans just to check out the route for the day.
We had considered doing a walking tour, a bus tour or a riverboat tour, but having ready the guide books I can do the same thing for free. We left the hotel, walked down Bourbon street to the end, then went to the French Market. Linda had a look around, started chatting to some stall holder about quilting and ended up exchanging email addresses. We stopped at Cafe du Monde which is a famous cafe, open 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. You either have black coffee or coffee au lait - nothing else. They also did some cakes, but Linda resisted the temptation, just. After this we went to Jackson square and saw the cathedral and a few other interesting buildings, before going to the riverside. We walked along the front, took the ferry to the other side (and back again), the ferry was free, but we have now cruised the Mississippi! We walked up Canal Street, stopped for coffee at PJS (another coffee shop) before visiting the number 1 cemetery. This was interesting, well I thought so, they build quite tall graves and then put generations of families in them. There were some that were empty - spooky!
After we went for a walk to St Charles Avenue to see the mansions and more period buildings, from here we got the tram back to the centre and found Starbucks, for a coffee. The weather had been fine during the day, but now it was getting cold. We decided to have dinner before we went back to the hotel, so it was off to the Cafe again. This time Linda had chicken and I had a different fish, she again had desert a white chocolate bread pudding, Linda was full by now and so needed to relax in the room, I went to the gym to exercise! On Thursday I went for a nice gentle run around New Orleans, covering some of the areas we had visited, just checking we had not missed anything. Linda was still asleep. After breakfast we packed the cases and checked out, We are collecting a car today to drive to Memphis, a six hour drive of around 400 miles, Linda just needs to sit back and relax.
You can see some photos of the trip here