New+Orleans

We flew to New Orleans via Miami (and came home via Houston, of course) arriving very late on Monday night at our hotel right on Bourbon Street. First up we realised that actually "being right on Bourbon St" might not be ideal as immediately across the narrow street was a bar with loud (read "LOUD") music fairly shaking the shutters. Luckily the girl on duty managed to shift us from a balcony overlooking the street to a back one over the pool and courtyard - amazingly it was quiet back there and so we slept soundly. Tuesday morning had us raring to go and off we set to explore the French Quarter starting with Bourbon St itself - bright and garish at night it looks decidedly sleezy in broad daylight, consisting mainly of bars and strip clubs - it reminded us on King's Cross, Sydney in the 70's. Morning tea was coffee and beignets (French donuts covered in icing sugar) at Cafe du Monde and lunch was spent in an outdoor cafe with a pretty cool jazz band.
 * We wandered down to Canal St and along the river front (Mississippi) ducking in and out of streets and alleyways to savour the "French" influence - if you suddenly woke up on some of the streets you would assume that you were in an European town (if you can miss the Stars and Stripes flags waving everywhere and the ubiquitous and gaudy ads).

These photos give a bit of the "feel" of the place - ranging from garish seedy to quite historic and grande.

We spent Tuesday night "club-hopping" searching for good music and headed up to Frenchmans St. We started with a drink in a blues bar (pretty good), "discovered" a small Jazz Club with a young band playing pretty much trad jazz to a large appreciative audience. From there we headed to Snug Harbour, where we'd been advised "good jazz is always goin' down" to eat and groove. Unfortunately, after a pretty ordinary meal, handing over $15 each cover charge, and settling in, we discovered the musician, who was billed to be playing "roots" had decided to play "his" roots (not the roots of jazz and blues we were expecting). His "//roots//" turned out to be .... would you believe .. country and western!!!!! We gave him three songs and then hit the streets again (yes, $30 poorer).

Not much further along we stumbled into another bar (only $5 each here) where a really cool band was playing our jazz - modern! with a great singer. We settled in so well here we missed out on getting to Preservation Hall (last show around 10pm) but we didn't mind as we had a wonderful night (and learnt next time to check what they mean by "//roots//" )

A bit of a wander about again on Wednesday and then it was time to head back to Florida. || ||
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 * [[image:IMG_7383.jpg caption="As you can see they tell you exactly what you are getting here. Some of the displays outside the strip clubs were almost pornographic! Its hard to reconcile the classy historic mansions just up the road with some of the tasteless trash on display here."]] || [[image:IMG_7378.jpg align="center"]] ||
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 * [[image:IMG_7308.jpg caption="There were small jazz bands playing in many cafes etc - we caught this cool group for lunch"]] || [[image:IMG_7295.jpg caption="Most windows had shutters for hurricane protection - some are elegant some not quite so..."]] ||
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 * [[image:IMG_7252.jpg caption="lots of markets in the old French Market area."]] || [[image:IMG_7351.jpg caption=""hmm, I'm sure they said to meet here" - a bit later when we passed again she and a small band were playing right here on the street. Don't you just LOVE the double bass transporter?"]] ||
 * [[image:IMG_7367.jpg caption="Yes, there is a newer section to the city."]] || [[image:IMG_7314.jpg caption="Love these news stands on corners"]] ||
 * [[image:IMG_7330.jpg caption="Taking a tram ride down St Charles St was an eyeopener - magnificent homes here and masses and masses of beads and necklaces hanging from the trees - this is the route of the Mardi gras!"]] || [[image:IMG_7331.jpg caption="hmmmm? obviously a popular tree!"]] ||