BYE Y'ALL IN NAWLINS

It was our last day of exploring in New Orleans and listening to the amusing accents of the people here. Kathy went shopping, Rob went to the WW11 museum and Bill and I explored the Garden District by street cars. The street cars that go down St Charles Ave to the Garden District are green to match  the leafy green suburb. In town they are red. Firstly we stopped at the Art Museums but both were shut on Mondays and Tuesdays??

 So back to the street car stop and we travelled to the end of the Garden District. The Garden District is not a botanic garden like we first thought but a well to do suburb where the posh houses, which have lovely gardens and the streets are lined with big shady trees. We hopped off the street car and walked through the area (looking for a coffee shop of course for you know who).

My arty shot of a lovely fountain in front of a big house.

St Charles Ave is a wide street with trees on both sides and in the middle. It is the street that the Mardi Gras parades pass down. See the tree on the right covered in strings of coloured beads.

 During Mardi Gras many strings of beads are purchased from the market and they are flung into the trees and lampposts and anything else that is handy. We couldn't find a coffee shop so we jumped on the next passing street car and returned to town.

The street car stops just opposite the famous Bourbon St .

We walked down Bourbon Street to soak up the atmosphere but we were disappointed the shops and bars all looked a bit seedy. We have been told that this street comes alive at night but I wouldn't like to be here at night.

So after a few blocks we turned down a side street to join Royal St which is a much nicer street with upmarket restaurants and shops.

We saw a nice restaurant called Mr B's Bistro. How could we walk past that? As my man is Mr B. (our last name starts with B)

They served the bread like this. We had a lovely rest and meal. Building up energy to walk down Royal St through the French Quarter.

 There were bands playing.

and actors acting. This guy looks like he's walking but he was a motionless human statue. A couple went up to him an asked if the lady could have her photo taken with him. He relaxed his pose and agreed. He gave the lady some instructions on how to be a statue before her partner took the photo

They were so good and fun to watch.

Not far along there was more music to sing along to. This was more like the  atmosphere we expected in New Orleans or as the locals say Nawlins.

I even found some more horses without cars in the way. These were used in the early days to tie your horse to. Now they are a NO icon.
Tired legs led us to the nearest streetcar stop which took us as far as the markets and then it was another 30 min walk back to the B&B.
The next day we packed and relaxed until it was time to get a taxi to the airport and look forward to a 41/2 flight to LA, a 7 hour wait for the 15 hour flight to Brisbane. We suffered the worst jet lag ever after this flight and it will be some time before we try it again.