City of New Orleans part 2

Up prompt to pack and check out of our very comfortable apartment.

The balcony where our Blue Moons were consumed was a little quieter in the morning.

Walked into town to a nice cafe for breakfast. One of the dishes included “grits” which I had seen on menus and thought for some reason was fried potatoes of some kind. Really not. Turns out it is a sort of porridge made with ground sweetcorn rather than oatmeal. Tastes of corn. Interesting but not to be repeated. Ever.

The museum we hoped to visit was closed on Mondays despite the sign outside clearly saying open Sunday to Saturday. Made do with the cathedral (oldest in the US) which was very pretty. And I have been in a few.

Walked back to the hotel to get the bags. Seemed to require calling in to the French Market for some vital clothes purchasing. Not for me as there seems to be a complete absence of Rohan shops over here.

Now faced with a 3 mile journey to the rail station with the cases in the middle of the day. Bit too sweaty to walk so needed 2 streetcars and a bus. Faffy but cheap. You can get a 24 hour pass for the over 65s for $0.80. The grumpy driver insisted on seeing documentary evidence. At first I was pleased that she thought I might be cheating but I later twigged that she asked everyone regardless of obvious senility.

Good job we got to the station early as they started boarding 30 mins early. A full train but after a while we got seats in the observation car. A lovely way to travel, until it got dark. Food on board was dire.

Arrived an hour late at 11.20pm. The station itself was shut and it looked like we were the only folk getting off and walking. Luckily our hotel was only a couple of hundred yards away.Read more