Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: American Double 2014
A full day in freezing Nashville
Having now abandoned the in-house experience of overpriced, mediocre food and drink, sometimes served with an attitude, we drove out to the nearest branch of McDonald's for breakfast. Less than 24 hours previously, we had been walking around in short-sleeve shirts; today we were wrapped up for winter! Exactly as forecast, a cold front had moved through overnight causing temperatures to plummet, and worse still, the significant wind chill made it feel well below freezing. Mercifully, the roads were completely dry.
After a brief return to the room to get organised, we set off for downtown Nashville and parked close to the Cumberland River in what turned out to be one of the most expensive lots in town. We began our explorations by walking northwards to Fort Nashborough, site of the first white settlement in Nashville in 1780. Unfortunately the site was closed to the public and looking somewhat decrepit. A nearby statue commemorated the city's founders, James Robertson and John Donelson. Continuing north along 1st Ave, we came to Public Square Park and the rather stern-looking 1936 Metropolitan Courthouse building, current seat of the city council and home to the mayor’s office. With our sightseeing agenda barely underway, we had already reached the point of wishing to take temporary refuge from the biting cold in a branch of Starbucks.
| RIGHT: The founding of Nashville and Public Square Park |
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Duly defrosted and with some hot coffee in our stomachs, we carried on westwards towards the imposing, Greek Revival sight of the Tennessee State Capitol, one of only twelve in the country that do not feature a dome. We managed to get ourselves onto a guided tour of the building, and as ever in my thirty years of visiting similar edifices in the USA, this was very well done.
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| ABOVE: Touring the Tennessee State Capitol | |||||
On leaving the Capitol, we wandered south through Legislative Plaza before heading for the Second Avenue Historic District, which we understood to be lined with Victorian buildings now housing a variety of shops, bars and restaurants. The reality of this latter location was less interesting than it sounded, however, and we wasted little time in pressing on towards our booked lunch venue, the upscale restaurant 'Husk', arriving an hour earlier than expected. The chef here was Sean Brock from McCrady's in Charleston, where we had enjoyed a fabulous blowout dinner in May 2013. His stated policy at Husk was: if it doesn’t come from the South, it’s not coming through the door! The food proved to be absolutely superb, fully living up to expectations.
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| ABOVE: Legislative Plaza | ABOVE: 2nd / 3rd Avenue district | ||||
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LEFT: The Schermerhorn Symphony Center provided proof that the greatest music ever written is not ignored or neglected in Nashville | RIGHT: Living the lunchtime high life at 'Husk' - and what a treat it proved to be! |
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Our sole order of business for what remained of
the afternoon was a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and
Museum. The 37-million-dollar building opened in downtown Nashville
in 2001, celebrating this particular musical genre and documenting
its evolving story. This was clearly not an obvious pastime for a
classical music buff such as myself. Bruce expressed a hope that I
would "not be driven completely over the edge by twangs and
heartache", adding that I was lucky that the Grand Ole Opry was
closed while we were in town!
In the event, as with Graceland and Fontanel, I
ended up enjoying the experience more than I thought I would.
Pushing one's personal boundaries from time to time is good for
character formation.
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BELOW and RIGHT: Yikes, fancy meeting you here! |
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Mindful of recent issues at the hotel and aware that we had already eaten our main meal of the day, we stopped at a Kroger supermarket on the way back to base in order to acquire some fried chicken and prepared salads. A liquor store also provided a suitable bottle of wine and, on impulse, we threw in a couple of miniatures of Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select as an appropriate nightcap.