From Rock'n'Roll to Creole Sept 17: Day 11 New Orleans : Food!Cocktails!SpookyStuff! Shops! Perfect!

[WileyCoyote]

Yesterday is here At the WW2 museum,Pat O Brien's and Gumbo shop
Wed 20 September

Another lazy start to the morning – its been so nice on this trip not rushing around !

A couple of pics of the rather splendid hotel …

Learning from yesterday, we called an Uber to Slim Goodies diner which is quite some way down Magazine Street

Andy had pre paid but there was some difficulty and the driver, Armen, was telling Andy it hadn’t come through .. so $10 cash was needed, but Andy only had $20 and Armen had no change. Really ?

To cut a long story short ( Spandau fans ) and not wanting to cause a scene this early in the morning, Andy paid up – so a $10 taxi ride cost us $30 in the end so breakfast deffo wasn’t cheap !

Our love affair with Uber was having a rocky start

Thank Goodness the diner was worth it .

This is in the Top 10 of the local Nola Eats recommendations .

So much choice ! And such interesting names on the menu

Andy had the Shroomer and I had The Bomb

We were told that the East Bank of NO was under a " boil water advisory" that morning ( lasted all day) so no ice or cold water based drinks but lots of coffee. I also had a side of French toast.

The bill was $34.

And you have to love this sign ..

We took a wander down Magazine Street – which has lots of boutique style stores

We had earmarked the Rum House as a potential place to eat but didn’t make it back … next tim

We were heading towards Starbucks so we could shamelessly surf their wifi

Loved the Autumn Food and cups …

We ordered another Uber and we had a super chatty driver who told us all about being here during Hurricane Katrina and took us on a drive alongside the ( not so scenic) river front

Love the houses

The River front

Harrah’s Casino – another “ next time” venue

One of the quaint Street Cars – yep, on that “ next time” list – Andy was like – why get a street car when you can uber it ? I’m like “ just because ….”

And of course, who else would you expect to find in the middle of N’awlins but Winston Churchill !

Apparently he was donated to the city by the developer of the Hilton Hotel, who had once been the British Consul for Louisiana. (the statue, not THE actual Winston as that would be both grave robbing and totally ewwww )

Our destination was the Outlet stores

It was lovely and sunny when we arrived so we had a brief look around outside – got to say, not massively impressive

The Outlets themselves were ok – pretty standard and very quiet which was nice

Loved the every flavour popcorn store

Some of the stores

We made our way to the foodcourt to have a sit down and a cold drink

We needed to decide if we were going to do any tours as time was flying by and we had not pre booked any.

I also discovered that quite a few required at least 24 hours notice ,which wasn’t going to work for us.

We did score though as Witches Brew had half price tours through Viator – one for this evening and one for tomorrow morning. So we booked ourselves on for just $13 each instead of $25. Do like a bargain.

We had opted for the Ghosts, Vampires and Voodoo tour for this evening – taking the 5pm slot rather than 8 pm as we are frankly old fogeys and if it’s a toss up between traipsing about in the dark when we could be sipping cocktails in a comfy chair – well, the comfy chair wins every time.

Here I am triumphant at my bargain tour booking …

As it was now ab out 2pm and the tour started at 5pm , we realised we obviously needed to fit in nap / cocktail time so a quick walk back to pick up a taxi.

Stopping just for fresh beignets from the Café Du Monde store
$3 for 3 warm doughy squares
And half a pound of icing sugar

Caught in the act !

I had on a bright pink dress that ended up candy striped pink and white with all the sugar

These were lovely .

We stepped outside again as the Paddle Steamer had come in whilst we had been inside. Yes, another thing for “ next time”.

We didn’t envy the people getting on though, the clouds were really menacing and by the time we got back to the hotel , it was full on chucking it down.

Top Tip – it rains quite a lot, quite heavily in the afternoons here . So go walkabout in the mornings. Remind you of anywhere ?

Our taxi driver wasn’t the happiest person in the world but she got us back in double quick time and we avoided a drenching

We also avoided any of the bodily functions mentioned on the taxi sign, phew , no fines here people

Did I mention it rained ?

Just a bit

[WileyCoyote]

Nothing for it but to take refuge in the hotel bar.

They had the most nifty shaker to make a Ramos Gin Fizz

Would have been rude not to try one ……….

And I even signed the Ramos register ….

It was still raining so we took a 30 second dash across the street to the Tropical Isle bar

Where I had been recommended to try a Shark Attack

It’s a delicious cocktail and comes with a ridiculous routine of whistles, warnings and general hooting and hollering which is hilarious – and had Andy rolling his eyes at me . I mean, I am normally so quiet !

We had run out of time for a nap so took a leisurely walk towards the tour meeting point taking on Bourbon Street

We were momentarily taken aback to see a lot of police activity and the Coroners van – this didn’t look good and lots of people were hanging about on the street so we were really worried there had been a serious crime in the area.

Turns out it was CSI filming

After not seeing anyone remotely famous, we headed towards Royal Street

Passing the famous Brennans restaurant

As it had been almost an hour since we last had food or drink, we stopped at the Royal Oyster house

This was a great place .

We shared the stuffed mushrooms

Andy had some red wine and I just stuck to a soft drink in a bid to actually take in some of the facts of the upcoming tour.

Was it successful ?

Hmmm
There were a lot of us ( 25 ) for the tour.

The meeting point was opposite Latrobe’s at 5pm.

We had a tour guide who was very energetic ( this means we think she was completely wired ) and talked lots more about herself than the other stuff which was a bit of turn off by the end and I *may* have not been in full listening mode.

What I really mean is …OMG she just prattled on and on and I went off into my own world

So, here’s what I learned about the actual tour

Something horrible went on here with one or two bank employees – I’m pretty sure one of them ended up putting the other into some boiling pots – their ghosts are alleged to be seen on the top floor of the building

There were grisly goings on here – I cant be more specific but Im sure it was fairly gruesome

I did pay attention at Jackson square – this was about a priest who had asked for mercy for some men who were being hanged by the Spanish governor – when he was denied, he nipped out in the middle of the night and removed their bodies into the sanctuary of the church and their ghosts are said to roam the alley.

There was some werewolf malarkey going on here and we learned you need a certain type of Toad in order to ward off a werewolf ( or a silver bullet) . The blue wolf is on quite a lot of artwork around the city and if you had an original painting , you would be minted by now.

I think there was general spookiness around here

We made a stop at a dodgy bar which wouldn’t be winining any prizes in the clean lav department.

It required feats of levitation that are quite frankly a struggle for my 50 year old knees.

I'm sure they must be on a good thing being the “ refreshment” stop on this tour, you would think they could invest in some Flash.

A stop to peer in at the Voodoo shop

Random bubbles

There were missing nun shenanigans at the Convent

Just love the streets around here

This next house is officially not somewhere you want to be buying. Apparently those in the know are aware that it was the scene of horrible slave torture and a party that ended in a bit of an inferno.

Allegedly Nicolas Cage didn’t do his homework on zoopla and bought the place. But hasn’t been seen in it. Allegedly.

We gathered they are not big Nic fans here – he gets another honorable mention on a different tour tomorrow !

If you watch the Originals you will recognise this as the Mikaelson/Marcel’s house – its gorgeous

And the balconies you sometimes saw from Hayley and Jackson’s apartment across the street

Although much of the Originals was filmed elsewhere but there were some memorable NO sights

The tour ended here – it had been ok, I would have felt it had been overpriced at the full ticket but we paid less and we saw some interesting sights . Maybe the later tour would have that spookier edge …

What we did learn its that NO has a pretty bloodthirsty history, a lot of bad blood generally .

We set off back in search of the hotel - or more food and drink as it had now been another hour or two since last consumption

We settled for the Grapevine bar which is handily directly opposite the hotel. It was pretty much fully reserved but we were offered seats at the bar which were perfect

See that werewolf again

I tried a Sazerac – too strong for me, Andy had to help me out

We had red wine, which came in its own little wine carafe with something that looked suspiciously like an ear dropper !

We stayed at the bar to eat and had a lovely server called Sunshine. Yes, that’s what her badge said and she came from California.

We had some bread and paprika butter

After ditching the Sazerac, I switched to a Hand Grenade martini

[/APP]

We shared appetisers of bacon wrapped scallops and beef medallions – these were delicious

We then shared a main of the Chicken - this was ok – I would have preferred it off the bone and the al dente veg were a tad underdone . But nice taste

The dessert menu

And the bread pudding - ooh this was divine

And a lovely coffee set

What a great couple of hours we had here . The food was delicious. And an outstanding $120 bill, including a cider and a couple of glasses of wine.

This is a great place, highly recommend it.

Spooky church statue - another recurring scene in the Originals

We managed the arduous several feet trek from the bar to the hotel and settled in to the Bourbon O Bar where we listened to a fab band for a while .

We have a relatively early start tomorrow for a cemetery tour so made our way up to bed around 11.

This is the view of the hotel pool that we had - the windows had fixed shutters to a bit tricky taking pics

It had been a great day today, really easy paced with lovely food and drink and taking in lots of the scenery.

[i love jack]

A busy day! Loving your summary of the tour
New Orleans looks lovely and quirky, sounds like you really enjoyed it here and have plenty to go back for btw what was in the ear dropper bottle

[Goldia]

Your photos of New Orleans are awesome it looks so interesting. Shame about the dodgy uber driver in the morning but otherwise a fab day.

[yellowrose78]

Your review of the tour was hilarious! Another great day

[Pussycat Doll]

Another great day, shame about the little spot of rain!

[CrispyA]

New Orleans sounds like somewhere we’d really enjoy - loving the pictures.

[Melbatb]

Love that shark drink

That rain was something! The tour sounds errrrr interesting (I think! )

[WileyCoyote]

Originally Posted by i love jack

A busy day! Loving your summary of the tour
New Orleans looks lovely and quirky, sounds like you really enjoyed it here and have plenty to go back for btw what was in the ear dropper bottle

See more...

You know I have no idea what was in the dropper bottle !
We had such a great time here, this was a fun day .

Originally Posted by Goldia

Your photos of New Orleans are awesome it looks so interesting. Shame about the dodgy uber driver in the morning but otherwise a fab day.

See more...

Yeah, shame on us being duped like that ! Uber rookies at the time ! We just loved New Orleans, it's an amazing place. The French Quarter is so beautiful to walk round.

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Your review of the tour was hilarious! Another great day

See more...

I did pay attention on the next tour ! We had a great day today.

[WileyCoyote]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Another great day, shame about the little spot of rain!

See more...

Ooh that rain, we were lucky though as it didn't spoil our plans and the forecasters were spot on with their predictions . I think the years of Orlando summer hols has us well trained

Originally Posted by CrispyA

New Orleans sounds like somewhere we’d really enjoy - loving the pictures.

See more...

It's a fab place, so much interesting history, great music and great food. We could easily have stayed longer.

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Love that shark drink

That rain was something! The tour sounds errrrr interesting (I think! )

See more...

That was a top cocktail ! The tour was ok, just a bit drawn out , could have been done in an hour and been a bit more zippy I think