Nashville

Sorry for updating this blog every so often but guess what? Travelling and visiting places is taking up most of our time and we hardly have any idle time.
So here we go…Nashville, the Music (and Beer) City.
Everything spins around music in Nashville, so much that there are speakers on every street corner blasting off country and rock’n’roll music.
Honestly I’ve never seen in my life so many bands playing live gigs at the same time, let alone on the same road. That’s Broadway, where everything is going on in downtown Nashville. Clubs, restaurants, “meat and three” joints and boot shops are all squeezed up along this road. The first night we had bbq’d ribs, beans and slaw at Jack’s and then ended up by chance at Tootsie’s which, we later discovered, is the place to be if you want to have a real taste of the city night life.Two bands were playing live, one on each floor. We listened to both while having a few Buds. What a great night, the bands were good and the crowd even better, possibly because the bartenders never stopped soliciting us to have more drinks…overall a great night.The following day we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum which included a guided tour to RCA Studio B where most of country and rock’n’roll classic songs were recorded, notably Elvis’s “Are you lonesome tonight?”. The museum has on display more memorabilia than the eye can take, an excellent experience and quite moving too.
We then had the best dinner so far at the Etch, a classy restaurant with some of the best meat one can possibly taste anywhere. And the Zinfandel from Dry Creek, California, was the perfect companion for that meal.
The following day was dedicated to sightseeing and photo shooting, we visited the Tennessee State Capitol in downtown Nashville and jumped on a bus to Centennial Park in midtown, where you can see a full scale replica of the Parthenon. We then chilled out at the hotel and at 6 PM we went to the Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music, to see Opry Classic Country show. The show was presented by host/singer Larry Catlin and also broadcast on radio and the internet. We didn’t know any performer but nevertheless enjoyed the show very much.
We then left, had a sandwich and headed off to Tootsie’s to see a few more bands and to have a few more Buds.
We went back to the hotel quite late, had a good night sleep and the next day we set off to Memphis.