Tuesday 30 July 2013

Day 17 - the day we tried 65 flavours of Cola

We got up early again, this time to travel to Atlanta, Georgia. We got two seats again so managed to get some sleep on the 41/2 hour journey. We got the bus to the hotel. We've been so lucky to have such lovely bus drivers- we just tell them where we need to get off and they shout us when we're there :). At the hotel we were told that we'd got a single room, "but don't worry it can fit 2 of you". No! Our faces must have said it all because they immediately upgraded us to our own  suite. It was probably the worst hotel we'd stayed in yet, but then again we'd been so lucky so far, and who can really moan at there own suite for a night? 
We had 2 walk in closets, a bathroom,  a kitchen area, living area and a dining area haha. Next door was a lovely looking cafe  so we headed there for lunch. We both had starters because the mains tend  to be huge especially for lunch. Shrimp cheviche for me and steak and jalepeno nachos for Loz. It was amazing.
Then off to the CNN studios for a backstage tour.
(Apparently that is a Guinness World Record breaking escalator on the right - largest free standing ;)and we obviously went on it, daredevils! ) 
Our tour guide Brianne was a star.
You couldn't take pictures of the actual studios unfortunately. 
After that we walked through Centennial Olympic Park - the Olympics were held in Atlanta in 96. It was a beautiful sunny day  :)
Following that we visited the World of CocaCola. We had booked the tour just to fill time - neither of us actually like coke haha - but it turned out to be quite hilarious. The first tour guide Emilio was fantastic. He danced about throughout his speech and made a big deal of us as we were from England. 
The vault with the secret formula ;)
You could have a photo with the coca cola polar bear but me and Lauren weren't looking our best by that point.
You could taste all the different flavours that CocaCola made around the world. Me and Loz felt a bit queezy after a while. I got a souvenir bottle of coke but we don't have a bottle opener so I had to leave that at the hotel - it was glass too so wouldn't travel well. 
Atlanta was pretty lovely. You can see the CNN building on the right of this picture ( look for the red sign).
We went back to our suite ;) for showers and then we went back to the cafe next door, which now had fairy lights lit up outside round all the trees. We had seen the cocktail menu earlier and knew we wanted grapefruit and rosewater martinis.
We both ordered the shrimp linguine - heaven.
We had a lovely evening with a few more cocktails then off to bed ready for the 9 hour trip to Orlando tomorrow. Lots of love xxxxx





















Monday 29 July 2013

Day 16 - the day we went on Elvis' jet

28th July 2013

It was such an early start as we had to be at the Greyhound station for 5.45am for our day trip to Memphis, Tennessee. At the station my beautiful cousins FaceTimed me (told you I'd put you on my blog girls!!). Goodness knows why they thought I'd be awake! 
The bus was lovely as there was only about 10 of us on it, which meant we could have 2 seats each,recline them all the way and sleep. However of the ten people on the bus we did manage to sit near to some American idiot who did it stop telling us all the places we need to go and asking us endless questions about UK. We definitely managed a couple of hours kip though.
We arrived in Memphis and got ourselves  straight to Graceland. It was fantastic.
We had platinum tickets so got to see around the mansion and all of the exhibits. We took sooo many photos.


Elvis' living room
Elvis' dining room
Elvis' kitchen 
Mirrored staircase
The bar in the TV room
The Pool room
Indoor waterfall

We had some lunch at the Rockabilly cafe which was decked out like a 50s diner. I can't pretend we ate anything healthy there.
We then went on both Elvis' private jet and his passenger plane. As you do.
24 karat gold leaf sink!
Everyone has to have their own blue suede bed on their aeroplane!!
Next was the car museum. Some of my faves:
In the gift shops you can buy replica Elvis jumpsuits but only of you have his bank account.
The next stop was Sun Records:
Then down to Beale St. 
All down the street are golden notes with various names associated with the blues.
We had free dinner at BB King's as part of our tour. When we both ordered salad we were not expecting quite so much of it.
We had to leave before dark as we had to get the greyhound back to Nashville. Then we had just a couple hours sleep before we has to be back at the terminal for the trip to Atlanta. I'm not sure quite what we're running on; there must be something still left in our bloodstream from cocktails on Saturday. Lots of love xxxx