Nashville, Tennessee

On the way to our next destination we had to pass by Nashville. We both are not really Country fans, but it seemed fun it check the city out.

We found a supermarket were we could park up for a couple of days or so and we took the bus to downtown. At first we did not know what to see and visit, so we just wondered around for a while. We came to the Capitol building and had a look around there, after that we headed back still not finding anything really exiting to see. But then we saw a visitor center and got some info about the city. One of our stops was at the Tennessee State Museum, to our surprise they did not charge any fee for that one and it turned about to be much bigger then I originally thought it would be.

They show some of the influence the Indians had before the European settlers came into the area. And of course a huge section about the Europeans who came after the 1700's. There are some lovely portrait paintings from late 1800's. There was a section that was dedicate to the music as well and they showed some of the clothes of country stars like Dolly Parton. We spend about 3 hours in there and we still have not seen everything properly, we went into overload.

After that we walked around and came to the music street Broadway, the are quite a few bars in this street and some of them have live music. We ended up in Tootsies Orchid Lounge, a smallish bar with a tiny stage were a country band was playing. It was very busy in there and the atmosphere was wonderful. The drinks were a bit expensive though. We did not stay that long, because we had to catch the bus back to Madison were our MH was parked.

The next morning the weather was horrible, it just kept on raining. We decided not to take the bus, but to drive the MH to the Opry Mall. There are some 200 shops under one roof, some restaurants & a cinema. So enough to spend the entire day there. I bought some CD's in Tower Records, who are closing down in a couple of weeks, so I did a good deal. The DVD's were still expensive, even with the 40% discount.

I was a bit peckish, so we stopped at Johnny Rockets, a 50's style diner. The milkshake was really good, and Wahid's hamburger was very tasty as well. Neat place, it reminded us of the place where I took Wahid to for his 30th birthday in the Netherlands.

Late in the afternoon the rain had stopped, we walked to the Grand Ole Opry House, but we were not allowed in. But someone in the gift shop told us that there were tickets available for the opening show the next evening. A Christmas Show with the Rockettes, so off we went to the tickets office to see if we could get tickets. And to our surprise they still had some tickets.

The next morning we went to the Ole Opry Museum, there was some things on display about the time that the Grand Ole Opry was broadcasting radio shows. But most of the exhibitions were of the stars in the 50' & the 60's, like Jim Reeves and Marty Robbins. After that we went to the Ole Opry Hotel, I was surprised how big this place is. There is an atrium, which all most looks like a jungle. Very nicely done. We spend most of the afternoon there, because outside it was raining again, there are some nice shops & restaurants to check out. In the late afternoon we headed back to the MH to get ready for our night out in the Grand Ole Opry House. The show was neat, it is amazing to see who those Rockette girls can kick their legs at the same time. Nice combination of classical music and Chrismas songs. We both loved the Christmas Spectacular, well worth the $ 29,00 we paid.