Author – Grant
Based In – Atlanta
Money Given To Big Corporate Companies Who Probably Don’t Need It - $69
Today’s Photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157613021673251/
You have two choices when faced with the problem of trying to get the best out of a city in a very small period of time. The first option is to try to get to know the real city by roaming around the bits that aren’t mentioned in the guide books, talk with the natives, eat and drink where the locals do and avoid anything with an entry fee. The second option is to open yourself up to the façade that the city’s tourism bureau wants you to see and visit their list of attractions, throwing as much money in their direction as is possible. Clearly the first option paints a more realistic picture of what a city is like but sometimes it’s fun, easier and less punishing on our fois gras livers to do the second option. So that’s what we did.
After a bracing and fairly challenging early morning four mile walk with Molly on one of Atlanta’s dozen or so excellent walking trails (although I’m still unsure how the burnt out shell of a car was half-way up a densely wooded slope), on went the almost matching North Face waterproof jackets (think Japanese couple on honeymoon) and central Atlanta beckoned. So far we have managed 9500 accident free miles (of which Kate should be given full credit for her 300 mile contribution) on this trip despite every season mother nature can throw at us and Bridget has remained blemish free. Until today, when I managed to scrape the side of her up a column in a parking lot. This reduction in resale value has just cemented my original wish that, when this trip is over, we can just drive her off a cliff. No one will ever love her as much as we do and the thought of her being sold as scrap is too painful. It’s what she would have wanted.
Time to begin the whistlestop tour of Atlanta’s biggest tourist attractions (minus the aquarium as we’re still fishy from Baltimore). First stop, CNN for a behind the scenes tour given by a guide who’s voice will nar
rate my nightmares until the day I die. After riding the largest free-standing escalator in the world (which is about as unimpressive as it sounds), the 55 minute tour begins with some insight into the magic of television including listening to the controllers orchestrate the live show which is seriously interesting. The highlight is watching the newsroom where the live footage is being filmed and beamed across North America at that very moment. Especially interesting is watching the anchorman when he is not on camera and we were lucky enough to witness the cliché moment of him checking himself out in a huge hand-mirror kept under his desk. The other awesome non-scheduled moment on the tour was the public arrest of a drunken hobo in the food court which caused quite a stir. As Kate pointed out, Breaking News unfurling before our very eyes.
Lunch was in the aforementioned, but now thankfully drunken hobo free, food court which provided a good opportunity for me to continue the American Fast Food Exploration Experiment. Chick Fil A (I’m assuming it’s a pun on fillet but I might be wrong) is a Georgian fast food brand that claims to have invented the chicken sandwich (think chicken burger for the UK readers) so it is kind of like being in the fried chic
ken in a bun version of Bethlehem. In order to ensure everlasting life in the afterworld (and probably to speed up my journey towards it), I went for the classic chicken sandwich which comes with waffle fries. I have to say, it was a mighty fine chicken sandwich that ticked all the boxes. The fillet was huge. Juicy yet meaty on the inside, crispy on the outside and came as naked as the day it was deep fried with absolutely nothing other than a couple of slices of gherkin. Chicken sandwich perfection from a fast food chain? I’ll try another dozen in the coming days and let you know for sure.
Next up was a visit to Coca-Cola World which is just down the road from where Mr Pemberton originally invented the tooth-dissolving beverage many crowns ago. The staff were predictably over-hyped and over-caffeinated but generally it was all good fun. More signs of g
etting old as we were both more interested in the funky memorabilia, marketing merchandise, international bottles and company history than the 4D theatre. The tour highlight for all ages was the hall containing a puke inducing 64 soda fountains with unlimited self-service access to various coca cola products from around the world. My favourite was a pineapple and coconut drink from South Africa whose name escapes me. Kate’s favourite? Diet Coke of course.
Final stop on the tour was a visit to the Martin Luther King Historic Site which is a sadly run-down and poor area of town in desperate need of some investment. The only two buildings that contain a full quota of windows and don’t look like they are about to turn to powder are the visitors centre (where we watched a short film about his life) and the new version of the Ebeneezer Baptist Church where MLK and his dad preached to
gether in the mid 60’s. The visitors center also contained an exhibition which included the famous poor man’s cart that pulled his coffin through the streets of Atlanta which was a bit surreal. Within a five minute period we saw the house where he was born and the plot where he is now buried which fairly accurately portrays out whistle-stop tour. I’m glad we went but I also hope that someone pumps some money into the area as, ironically, it’s not a very good advert for a largely black area of a city that is generally considered to house the largest accumulation of black wealth in America.
The decision to dine at Bella’s Pizzeria that eve
ning has to be the most random way to choose a restaurant ever. When we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel, we noticed a lone newscaster out the front as we happen to be based next to a Home Depot service center. Ten minutes later we saw the newscaster on our TV talking about the effects of Home Depot’s announcement to lay off a chunk of its workforce and the segment included interviews with various local businesses who might suffer because of the lay-offs. Included were our hotel, a cigar villa (a shop selling cigars and providing reclining chairs to smoke them in) and…Bella’s Pizzeria. I’d like to claim it solely a charitable act on our behalf that took us there to help out an ailing company but the truth is that I was licking my TV because the pizzas shown in the newscast looked so damn good. T
he place was the perfect blend of bar and pizza joint where Muggs, our very fat and very gay waiter / bartender / raconteur, served us up with ice cold beer and some of the largest portions of food I have ever seen. Seriously, it was like doing a guest appearance on Man vs Food. Kate had two whole peppers stuffed with meat ragu, half a pound of buttery bow-tie pasta and a handful of garlic knots. I had a meatball stromboli (like a calzone) with a house salad. They were both decent enough and certainly did the job but unfortunately the food left our bellies too full for any more beers. Having a double helping of The Office starting at 10pm on TBS had absolutely nothing to do with our early departure…honest.
We head to Nashville tomorrow and I’ve saved my t-shirt with the guitar on the front especially. Final thing is to wish Mrs. Martin a belated Happy 35th birthday. It seems almost spooky that we were at the wedding of her 30 year old daughter only last year…
Based In – Atlanta
Money Given To Big Corporate Companies Who Probably Don’t Need It - $69
Today’s Photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157613021673251/
You have two choices when faced with the problem of trying to get the best out of a city in a very small period of time. The first option is to try to get to know the real city by roaming around the bits that aren’t mentioned in the guide books, talk with the natives, eat and drink where the locals do and avoid anything with an entry fee. The second option is to open yourself up to the façade that the city’s tourism bureau wants you to see and visit their list of attractions, throwing as much money in their direction as is possible. Clearly the first option paints a more realistic picture of what a city is like but sometimes it’s fun, easier and less punishing on our fois gras livers to do the second option. So that’s what we did.
After a bracing and fairly challenging early morning four mile walk with Molly on one of Atlanta’s dozen or so excellent walking trails (although I’m still unsure how the burnt out shell of a car was half-way up a densely wooded slope), on went the almost matching North Face waterproof jackets (think Japanese couple on honeymoon) and central Atlanta beckoned. So far we have managed 9500 accident free miles (of which Kate should be given full credit for her 300 mile contribution) on this trip despite every season mother nature can throw at us and Bridget has remained blemish free. Until today, when I managed to scrape the side of her up a column in a parking lot. This reduction in resale value has just cemented my original wish that, when this trip is over, we can just drive her off a cliff. No one will ever love her as much as we do and the thought of her being sold as scrap is too painful. It’s what she would have wanted.
Time to begin the whistlestop tour of Atlanta’s biggest tourist attractions (minus the aquarium as we’re still fishy from Baltimore). First stop, CNN for a behind the scenes tour given by a guide who’s voice will nar
rate my nightmares until the day I die. After riding the largest free-standing escalator in the world (which is about as unimpressive as it sounds), the 55 minute tour begins with some insight into the magic of television including listening to the controllers orchestrate the live show which is seriously interesting. The highlight is watching the newsroom where the live footage is being filmed and beamed across North America at that very moment. Especially interesting is watching the anchorman when he is not on camera and we were lucky enough to witness the cliché moment of him checking himself out in a huge hand-mirror kept under his desk. The other awesome non-scheduled moment on the tour was the public arrest of a drunken hobo in the food court which caused quite a stir. As Kate pointed out, Breaking News unfurling before our very eyes.Lunch was in the aforementioned, but now thankfully drunken hobo free, food court which provided a good opportunity for me to continue the American Fast Food Exploration Experiment. Chick Fil A (I’m assuming it’s a pun on fillet but I might be wrong) is a Georgian fast food brand that claims to have invented the chicken sandwich (think chicken burger for the UK readers) so it is kind of like being in the fried chic
ken in a bun version of Bethlehem. In order to ensure everlasting life in the afterworld (and probably to speed up my journey towards it), I went for the classic chicken sandwich which comes with waffle fries. I have to say, it was a mighty fine chicken sandwich that ticked all the boxes. The fillet was huge. Juicy yet meaty on the inside, crispy on the outside and came as naked as the day it was deep fried with absolutely nothing other than a couple of slices of gherkin. Chicken sandwich perfection from a fast food chain? I’ll try another dozen in the coming days and let you know for sure.Next up was a visit to Coca-Cola World which is just down the road from where Mr Pemberton originally invented the tooth-dissolving beverage many crowns ago. The staff were predictably over-hyped and over-caffeinated but generally it was all good fun. More signs of g
etting old as we were both more interested in the funky memorabilia, marketing merchandise, international bottles and company history than the 4D theatre. The tour highlight for all ages was the hall containing a puke inducing 64 soda fountains with unlimited self-service access to various coca cola products from around the world. My favourite was a pineapple and coconut drink from South Africa whose name escapes me. Kate’s favourite? Diet Coke of course.Final stop on the tour was a visit to the Martin Luther King Historic Site which is a sadly run-down and poor area of town in desperate need of some investment. The only two buildings that contain a full quota of windows and don’t look like they are about to turn to powder are the visitors centre (where we watched a short film about his life) and the new version of the Ebeneezer Baptist Church where MLK and his dad preached to
gether in the mid 60’s. The visitors center also contained an exhibition which included the famous poor man’s cart that pulled his coffin through the streets of Atlanta which was a bit surreal. Within a five minute period we saw the house where he was born and the plot where he is now buried which fairly accurately portrays out whistle-stop tour. I’m glad we went but I also hope that someone pumps some money into the area as, ironically, it’s not a very good advert for a largely black area of a city that is generally considered to house the largest accumulation of black wealth in America.The decision to dine at Bella’s Pizzeria that eve
ning has to be the most random way to choose a restaurant ever. When we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel, we noticed a lone newscaster out the front as we happen to be based next to a Home Depot service center. Ten minutes later we saw the newscaster on our TV talking about the effects of Home Depot’s announcement to lay off a chunk of its workforce and the segment included interviews with various local businesses who might suffer because of the lay-offs. Included were our hotel, a cigar villa (a shop selling cigars and providing reclining chairs to smoke them in) and…Bella’s Pizzeria. I’d like to claim it solely a charitable act on our behalf that took us there to help out an ailing company but the truth is that I was licking my TV because the pizzas shown in the newscast looked so damn good. T
he place was the perfect blend of bar and pizza joint where Muggs, our very fat and very gay waiter / bartender / raconteur, served us up with ice cold beer and some of the largest portions of food I have ever seen. Seriously, it was like doing a guest appearance on Man vs Food. Kate had two whole peppers stuffed with meat ragu, half a pound of buttery bow-tie pasta and a handful of garlic knots. I had a meatball stromboli (like a calzone) with a house salad. They were both decent enough and certainly did the job but unfortunately the food left our bellies too full for any more beers. Having a double helping of The Office starting at 10pm on TBS had absolutely nothing to do with our early departure…honest.We head to Nashville tomorrow and I’ve saved my t-shirt with the guitar on the front especially. Final thing is to wish Mrs. Martin a belated Happy 35th birthday. It seems almost spooky that we were at the wedding of her 30 year old daughter only last year…
1 comment:
well, someone once told me I had the shoulders of a 35 yr old, does that count?? Thanks for your greeting, and an early happy anniversary wish for the 3rd Feb. Kate, hang in there, in another 27 years you will have served the same sentence as the Kray twins....
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