With a type of Roti dunked in tea we finished breakfast the next morning and after a fond farewell drove out of Dublin and raced towards Savannah.The RVs were becoming a fixture in this trip. We would see them ever so often. A quick peep in at the visitor center and we hopped into the HOHO [Hop on Hop off] bus, the old Town Trolley. The bus filled quickly and the boisterous driver cum guide took off. Savannah was the first Capital of Georgia and its historic district with eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture is a treat. Parks with Spanish moss hanging on trees, Churches, Museums, war memorials et al are laid out in rectilinear grids. The driver would slow down and point out the monuments and recite its history and all of us would crane our necks to see it. Sometimes it would be to the left, sometimes to the right and sometimes in the front. The first time the view was in the wrong direction I changed the seat for a better view but the next time I was lost. I just sat pointing my camera in the direction of the driver's arm and prayed I would get a good picture! Luckily, I had the whole seat to myself and didn't disturb anyone with my antics. And I ended up with front views, side views, partial views, skewed pictures and so on. This blog has been the toughest to date thanks to such photographic skills :) As I try to blog this trip I have turned sleuth and pieced together the ride from the pictures with the help of Google. I have tracked down using door numbers, hazy legends, description of pictures and what not. And Google found them all. This blog is dedicated to its genius :) There are days when I crib about loss of privacy but not today.
Visitor center
Coastal Georgia center definitely didn't look old I thought as we passed by it. HOHO bus was just one type of a tour. I saw people on Segways around the corner. A Fish was the opening for a drain from a building and I see I have a perfect picture of it and I know what it is by myself :). The phone booth at the entrance of the Six Pence pub was lonely in the hot sun. The Artillery bar’s board read 4 Pm - Until, Closed Sunday. And it was just eleven in the morning and closed. This is the "Old Sorrel - Weed House" the driver boomed. It is a museum and has ghost tours he smirked. The Forrest Gump was shot here he added next and the bus tilted as the passengers dashed to the windows facing it. I seem to have a side view of the building and an unreadable shot of the board :) I googled "425, Savannah Historic district" to discover the picture in front of me to be that of Hilton Inn . My hair stood on end as I read the details of the "Mercer Williams House museum". The red building had a troubled past. Is that a Dog waiting for its master in the next house? Seems more like a Lion head. The metal work and the work around the window is beautiful. We then passed Bouhan Falligant, the Attorney's firm. It is a white colonial style building. I seem to be smitten by it going by the number of good pictures I have of it.
Old Sorrel Weed house
Mercer William's house
Bouhan Falligant, the Attorney's firm
We crossed Georgia Historical Society, a building with a Woman carrying lights on her head, Forsyth Park Inn and paused in front of the Spanish American War memorial. A soldier stood with a gun in his hands with a row of trees covered in Spanish moss behind. Do you see his bullet belt? I do. Telfair hospital was built by Mary Telfair in 1884 and was exclusively for women. It is also listed among the haunted houses. Mary Telfair haunts it. Perhaps she still feels the need to check on it at times :) We drove past a row of beautiful houses with the driver staying quiet. There was a house with statue in the lawn and statues beside the door and another house had towers like Castles :) Google tells me they were/are for sale :)
Massie heritage Centre started off as a school for the poor and is now a kid's museum. The bus stopped, and parents got down with kids in tow. We continued. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist with its tall spires loomed in front. It was closed. A statue of a nun explaining something to a young girl holding a book caught my eye. We were in front of the Monument of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy staffed hospitals and Schools in Savannah. It reminded me of nuns in our School. My salute to them. The Colonial War cemetery has an impressive eagle on the entrance arch built by DAR[Daughters of the American Revolution] I clicked a little late and now I see I have a side view of it . Dah! I have never been in the Schools Girl Scouts program, but I remember being enamored as a child. And here we were at the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low the founder of the Girl Scouts movement. Wow, this was something. We would see her in the Savannah museum later.
Georgia Historical Society
Spanish American War memorial
Telfair Hospital
Massie Heritage Center
Cathedral of St John the Baptist
Monument of Catherine McAuley
Colonial War cemetery
Juliette Gordon Low's birthplace
We crossed the city market. A few people seemed to be taking a stroll with no intention of shopping. Designed by the English architect William Jayof Bath, the Owen's house was completed in 1819 and owned by George Welshmen Owens. This house is a piece of England as it was built to be compatible to Bath, England and is in the English Regency architecture style. I am sure the driver explained all this since I seem to have the time to take three pictures of it. We seemed to have zoomed past the Davenport House since I have just the side view. The trip had ended with a recommendation by the driver to eat Ice cream at Leopold's. My bil [brother in law] tipped him handsomely. Soliciting openly for tips is very much an American tradition I think. The hat with a note for tips is placed prominently. Recently I was reading how the hospitality industry in US pays meager wages and hence tips are humanitarian and legal. I had always assumed this was something not right. I am now beginning to reconcile to this. And does the driver get commission from Leopold's for advertising? Back home we have seen drivers taking us to specific souvenir/local specialty shops and getting payed for it.
Owen's house
Davenport House
As I ferreted out details for the pictures I am wondering how such an assembly of famous buildings crowded the layout that was begun by James_Oglethorpe. Any thoughts? Or as time passes by do buildings acquire fame? Is that when a heritage walk becomes interesting and a viable commercial option? Reminded me of the Heritage walk in Pune .
We crossed SCAD theater which was showing "The Mummy" and joined the long queue outside Leopold's. Chairs were taken, and water was being served to the thirsty. A group, everyone carrying identical backpacks stood before us. Perhaps they were a tourist group.Ten minutes later we jostled our way in and luckily found an empty table. My sister claimed the table while we went to the counter. All along the corridor were hung pictures of Hollywood stars and movies. Leopold's Ice cream was started in 1919 by three Leopold brothers, immigrants from Greece. Stratton, a second-generation Leopold left the Ice cream business he was heading and went on to become a big Hollywood Producer. After producing innumerable movies, he returned to re-open the Ice cream shop. John Travolta looked deadly in "The General's daughter". I inched inside to take pics on the walls. Thrilled with being at the original Leopold's I returned to my Ice cream soon :)
Leopold Ice cream
Leopold family pictures
Stratton's movies
John Travolta
We took another HOHO and arrived at the Savannah River Street. This one was very different from the one at San Antonio. The old cotton warehouses have been converted to pubs, antique shops, boutiques, restaurants etc. We walked down the road and met the cobbled stone road with the brick red and wrought iron warehouses. "Fannie's , your aunt" what do they sell here? And ”Bob's your uncle" agony uncle? "Shrimp Factory" was definitely for sea food. And "Moon brewing Company" obviously peddled the bubbly :) But what was "Andaz"? Was the shop Indian? Google now tells me it is a Boutique hotel. We ducked into a souvenir shop. T-shirt shaped fridge magnets with funny messages caught my eye. I stopped and chuckled at some of them. The toy guns had funny messages, but I was not amused. "Zoltar" in the glass cage was an Indian Magician? The three monkeys in the corner indicate that but what do those Sea horses point to? No idea. We picked up some souvenirs. I picked up three postcards of beautiful homes the trip didn't cover. One of them is the Gingerbread house :) And I will let them be for private viewing only :)
Cobbled River front
Shrimp factor, Bob's, your uncle
Zoltar
Moon Brewing Company
Andaz
"Why don't you get your cartoon done?" my bil asked pointing at the cartoonist seated across the road. What feature of my face would lend to caricature? I was curious. I stood undecided. People were waiting for their turn and cartoons were displayed around him, but the white boat called. We walked to the boat counter. The cruise was not to be. The next trip was a couple of hours later :( Westin hotel stood tall on the other side of the river. We walked up to the end of the rails and looked around. The water was clean and shimmered in the Sun. People were posing for pictures near the Waving girl statue. Florence Martus was the unofficial greeter of all ships that entered the Savannah port for forty years. A legend says she was in love with a sailor and kept waiting for him. But he never returned, and she died broken-hearted. Sigh! We crossed the American Custom House and the "Morning News" office. It operated from here between 1850-1925. What my eye couldn't do my camera has done with a clear picture of its name :) The next stop was "Old city Exchange bell" . This bell rang at all festive and sad occasions and is now mute under a cupola. Do you see it? In one frame the bell is visible the cupola isn't and in another I have the whole pavilion, cupola and all but no bell. That is some skill :) Got a glimpse of the First African Baptist church as we got into the HOHO for the ride back to the center.
Florence Martus, the waving girl
Morning News
Bell with no cupola
Cupola with no bell
First African Baptist Church
We walked around and found the Savannah History museum. A model of SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic greeted us. It sailed from Savannah to Liverpool in 1819. London Times writes about how it was mistaken to be on fire and was chased by the Kite, a revenue cruiser off the coast of Ireland. Nice welcome :) A man in a civil war fatigue including an archaic gun walked by, he seemed to blend with a statue close by. We gaped :) A legend mentions how boats were scuttled to defend the river and to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Interesting. On September 11, 1943 USS Savannah is bombed by a German Dornier off the coast of Salerno Bay. She survives the attack and is repaired later in Philadelphia. A picture honors her here. I peeped inside a diorama of native Americans going about their day to day life. Two men were seated around a fire. One of them seemed to be examining a piece of cloth? And does that horn across his waist contain gun powder? Perhaps. Savannah is where cotton and slavery went hand in hand. An African woman was pounding corn in the corner and Eli Whitney's cotton gin stood beside her. A Power loom with samples is also displayed. Engines to represent Savannah’s link to the great Railroad industry, a single log dugout improvised from the native American model, a horse drawn carriage, a motorized carriage are all displayed. And my picture of the bench used in Forrest Gump is all hazy. Don't go by this picture alone my photographic skill is not this bad :) And horror of horrors I have no picture of Julliette Gordon Low!
SS Savannah
USS Savannah
Native Americans
Eli Whitney's gin
Log Dugout
Steam Engine
The museum was small but very well curated. It had covered everything including the arrival of Irish immigrants and Native American milestones. And Savannah historic city is showcased so well. India is a very old country and history is everywhere. How do you contain it within walls? At Aihole we had seen temples big, small, half built, fully built everywhere. People lived beside them. We had seen cow dung cakes plastered on some walls. How do you treasure such heritage? When history is all around each piece is a museum I guess.
There are so many more things to do in Savannah but that would be for another day. The next pit stop that day was the closed gate of the Golf course at Augusta where the Master's is played and then we were home.
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