After a few days in metropolitan Miami, I took a short flight to Atlanta. This quickly took the spot of my favourite American city. I got to enjoy a few days in the City of Trees before heading to Honky Tonk town, Nashville!

Atlanta, Georgia

Known as the ‘City of Trees’ this Southern city is worlds apart from the sparkle of Miami. It has an authentic Southern feel with traditional streets and buildings that have survived the test of time.

The other side of that though, is unfortunately poverty. It became apparent very quickly by the number of homeless people including families on the streets. This was sad to see and did give the evenings a more cautionary feel. At the same time, people were very friendly in Atlanta and showed traditional ‘Southern hospitality’.

I also had a great room at my hotel, as it was a little older, it offered a large space similar to a suite for low value!

Sightseeing in Atlanta

There are plenty of spots to eat in Atlanta and they all have a real earthy home cooked feel to their menus which is great!

The city also offers a few major attractions including a huge aquarium, and the thing I was most excited for, the Coca Cola Museum!

I am a big fan (addict) of Coca Cola. I have been hooked for many years, not only for the taste but also for the branding. We all know the special Christmas Coke adverts with Santa and the polar bear. I bet you didn’t know though that Santa was depicted in a green suit before Coke used him in advertising and changed his outfit to red to match their brand! Coke has had a huge influence around the world and I wanted to learn about it…

Much like the Guiness factory in Dublin and Cadbury World in Birmingham, its suprising how well a single food or drink product can pull off a visitor attraction!

The visit starts off as a timed entrance with a guide telling you a little introduction and showing you various coke memorabilia from over the years. Then the doors open and you choose your way around. I started with the history of the invention of Coke found behind a big vault door. Very dramatic!

It seems that coke was created in an apothecary by a chemist who was making it as medicine but as time went on it became obvious that people liked the flavour and suddenly it was flying off the shelves. Later the secret recipe was sold to a bigger company and for years the secret recipe was kept in a vault in Atlanta not being seen or shared by anyone outside the family for centuries. The way they display this to visitors is super interactive with lots of apothecary drawers you can open and look for things and lots of projections and spy holes to look through.

 

Next I saw the promotions exhibit all about the advertising genius of Coca Cola. Many videos and beautiful illustrations were displayed with information and their journey into being important event sponsors was also explained. 

At the end of the museum before the huge shop, you can enjoy the tasting room. I was given a plastic cup and then given free reign to taste all my heart desired of the 100+ flavours of coke and other fizzy drinks from around the world from several soda fountains dotted around the room. Who knew that each country had their own version! Pace yourself if you want to try them all like I did… I was left feeling a little sick afterwards, especially when you taste what they’re having in Hong Kong! Once my cup was dry and my shoes were unstuck from the floor, I was off to the shop for a souvenir and out the door to my next stop, but overall I thought it was a brilliant attraction!

Martin Luther King Jr

Different to the Latin population in Miami, most of the population in Georgia is Black American, with great pride taken in the local heritage. The locals here know how important equal and humanitarian rights are to their history and are proud to be the home of the National Park for Martin Luther King Junior.

Luther King Jr grew up in Atlanta and his family home is still preserved by the National Park. Guided tours and talks are provided and there are also other spots like the fire station and the actual museum that you can visit. When I visited, the house was closed because it was being treated for termites! I was able to see the house next door though and still have a talk, the whole row of houses has been preserved from the period when Luther King was there.

The exhibition in the museum was really interesting with information about Martin Luther King Jr’s early life, marriage, his protests and victories, death, and the work his family continued afterwards. There were shocking images, testimonies and video clips from real people that suffered under segregation and racial abuse. It was very moving and then afterwards I enjoyed seeing the Martin Luther King Jr memorial and fountain.

This whole area was in a designated part of town and you could easily take a local tram, bus or uber to reach it.

Stone Mountain Park

If you take a taxi about half an hour from the city of Atlanta, you will find Stone Mountain Park. A state park with a lot to offer those on a day out and visitors looking to learn a bit more about the local state history of Georgia.

It is not too much cost to get there, but arrange a taxi back in advance as its hard to get a return taxi otherwise. Many operators sell tours to visit too but I felt this was more expensive than I was willing to pay so would rather go there directly. It just depends on your travelling confidence..

In the park you will find a small theme park, as well as natural woodland, a replica village and a cable car to take you high up onto Stone Mountain with views of the area.

You can purchase different tickets for different areas of the park that you want to use and when I went the family theme park including the little tourist train that they have was closed. The cable car was available though and so I enjoyed riding up this and past an impressive carving in the side of the mountain.

Once at the top there is some information about local wildlife and a snack shop. I grabbed a pretzel and went outside to enjoy the spectacular views on top of basically a big rock! I saw some other people that had hiked up but was glad not to have done that today as it was super hot and the walk is very steep.

After I came down, I followed my little map to an area designated for a collection of historic buildings. These old settler buildings were removed from their original locations and rebuilt here as a small village. Inside each one there are original pieces of furniture and nick knacks and I also met a volunteer guide who was keen to talk to me about the history. This was all really lovely and was sort of what you expected to see in America so it hit the spot for me and was a rewarding way to end the day and my visit to Georgia.

Next I grabbed a local bus ticket and headed into Tennessee for a few days in Nashville.

Nashville, Tennessee

I have always been a fan of country music and with being so close to ‘Music City’, it seemed silly not to visit Nashville.

First thing to say about this place though, whatever you are imagining from the movies and TV is incorrect. Nashville is a huge city with modern skyscrapers, not a dust ball blowing wooden ‘old west’ town. I started noticing that, coming over on the bus as the metropolitan skyline came into view and it was cemented by the bus station, which was rough, to say the least.

My hotel was lovely, though not as spacious as the Atlanta one and my first day was spent looking for the musical action.

Seeing the music happen

Music Row is where all the big record producer studios are and you can grab a bus here but honestly it was not worth it. These are actual businesses so you cannot just wonder in and start taking photos. The street is pretty normal and residential, and very quiet. Unless you have paid extra to do some sort of studio experience, I would not bother stopping on Music Row.

If you head to Broadway, it is much more lively. This is where the row of Honky Tonk bars you see on the telly exist. One street with glowing cowboy hat signs in the windows and live music bellowing through the door. Acts sing country music all throughout the day and night here and it gets very crowded. Some of the venues are much larger and have big dance floors where you can also learn line dancing. This is good fun and the drinks and food are always flowing but it is also quite gimmicky and if you go at the weekend you will see many, many, hen groups.

On the same street, there are several shops selling souvenirs and some that specialise in cowgirl boots. So if you love a cowgirl (or cowboy) boot, this is your time to grab it.

Music Hall of Fame

One of the biggest attractions in Nashville is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It has an overwhelming amount of memorabilia from various country music performers over many decades. Top for me was seeing the car belonging to Elvis Presley and Taylor Swift’s outfits and guitar. It was an interesting museum but very big, so do prepare yourself! This is also home to the actual Country Music Hall of Fame, which i had always thought was just a made up accolade, but it is actually a real hall. The big space has plaques all over the walls with the faces of country music stars that have been given the award.

Grand Ole Opry

The best part of Nashville for me was my visit to the Grand Ole Opry. Worth booking in advance, it’s a huge theatre where celebrated country stars perform. There are performances everyday and when I went, there were a number of acts which were impressive. I saw a musician from Japan that was still performing in his 90’s and a guy who really knew his way around a Harmonica. Overall, a great night out.

After my quick visit to Nashville and sadly no time to visit Memphis to hear more about Elvis, it was time to jump back on the bus and head to St Louis, Minnesota…

Tune in for the next post on my visit to some very windy cities!