For the first time we choose Delta to fly us to the USA and generally it was a satisfactory experience. The business seats, known as Delta One, were on a par with BA but not as comfortable as Singapore Airlines. The food was perfectly adequate but the choice was a little limited with only chicken, steak or a vegetarian option for the main meal and only two options for the later snack. Here’s Sylvia enjoying her pork sandwich.
At Atlanta we were very pleased with the immigration process, no queues and thankfully for Sylvia, no fingerprints were required. After collecting our luggage and carrying them the hundred yards through customs and putting them back on the conveyor (I’ve never understood the reasoning benind this) we cleared security again ready for our onward flight. The whole process taking less than half an hour.
At Memphis we shared a taxi with a couple from the Isle of Man who were on our flight. They are off on a Mississippi Riverboat cruise and coincidently are on the same flight back home with us so we should be able to compare holiday notes.
The room in the hotel was a little disappointing overlokking a busy noisy highway……..
……perhaps this photo gives a more appropriate description.
Although the hotel couldn’t do any thing last night they changed our room this morning giving us a much more pleasant and quieter view.
Today we decided to explore Beale Street and some of the music museums, however the weather had different ideas. Although we had been monitoring the weather before we travelled we weren’t expecting the rain that we experienced this morning. So it was a very wet walk to the home of the blues.
It didn’t stop us taking in the Walk of Fame outside the Orpheum theatre with plates commemerating many stars such as ….
The latter one is for the benefit of Aaron.
We made our way down Beale Street to the Rock and Soul museum which told th e story of Memphis’ involvement in the history of blues, soul and rock and roll music. A very good museum with lots of interesting and informative exhibits. A key message of the museum was the influence of black music on the development of these modern genres and how segregation was prevalent in this city. Interestingly it was 51 years ago exactly that Dr Martin Luther King was killed here in Memphis.
We hope to go out again this afternoon and evening so I will updatethe blog when I can.