So on Saturday evening we went to Lincoln Center to hear the New York Philharmonic play and sing Verdi's Requiem. This is truly God's music with the stirring playing and singing tempting even the fervent unbeliever to grant there must be something going on up there. It was a wonderful performance with excellent soloists, a great choir and very spirited playing from the orchestra. Certainly an uplifting curtain raiser to the trip.
We returned home to complete packing and preparations prior to the very early morning departure the next day. After little sleep, we got up at 4 am, fed the cats, grabbed our bags and took a cab to JFK airport. The run to the airport did not take too long and after a bit of a wait for security and a bus transfer from Terminal 2 to Terminal 4 we boarded our small Delta CRJ 900 plane for the three hour flight to Louis Armstrong Airport at New Orleans. The flight was largely uneventful and amongst our fellow passengers were 13 or 14 other members of the QUEST group.
On landing in NOLA, half an hour early, we soon had our baggage and met up with the representative from Road Scholar who loaded us onto a bus for the 15 minutes ride into the city and to our hotel the Holiday Inn Downtown.
We were not able to check in immediately as the hotel had been full the night before so we decided to go for a walk. It was a sunny, cool day. After a while wandering the streets we found our way to the French Quarter which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. The streets were quite crowded as it was Sunday and this is a holiday weekend with Monday being Martin Luther King Day.
We passed some of the smaller streets with the iconic wrought iron balustrades and doorways, some of which were already decorated for the forthcoming Mardi Gras celebrations.
Many of the restaurants and bars were busy and noisy. but after traversing Canal, Dauphine, South Rampart and Bienville streets we found Landry's which is not the best or the most famous of New Orleans restaurants but serves decent seafood and was adequate for our purposes as we had not had anything to left since leaving New York.
We ate shrimp, grits, seafood étouffée, fried oysters washed down with Pimms and beer. It was very tasty but extremely filling and we could hardly stand when we were through. This is going to be a tough trip!!!! We walked (waddled) back to the hotel via Basin Street and asked if they had a room yet which they did even though we were ahead of the check in time. We had soon been reunited with out luggage and were in our room on the 17th floor. Very little ceremony was conducted before we were both asleep.
We were awoken by the phone as we had missed the beginning of the Road Scholar briefing. So we hurried downstairs to one of the hotel conference rooms where Sharon Owens our tour director was giving information on the week's activities. This including menu selections for some of the meals which we will be taking as part of the various visits. The program is probably more organized than we are used to and I think we may be making some solo jaunts to various places of interest during the week. Most days there are quite long lecture sessions on culture, history, architecture, etc. then there are visits to various parts of the city. We have a long list of things to do and will intersperse these with the RS program.
We also have personal listening devices which are primarily intended for those who are hard of hearing, which we are not.
After the orientation session, dinner was served at a buffet in the hotel but after our large lunch, neither of us could face more food, so we retired to the room to unpack and to regroup for tomorrow's activities which include a lecture on the history of NOLA and in the afternoon a visit to various areas of the city including the Lower 9th ward which was so badly damaged in Hurricane Katrina. Tomorrow evening we have a cruise and dinner on a paddle wheeler called the Creole Queen.
I am still having trouble getting photos from the camera to the blog but the struggle continues.
We returned home to complete packing and preparations prior to the very early morning departure the next day. After little sleep, we got up at 4 am, fed the cats, grabbed our bags and took a cab to JFK airport. The run to the airport did not take too long and after a bit of a wait for security and a bus transfer from Terminal 2 to Terminal 4 we boarded our small Delta CRJ 900 plane for the three hour flight to Louis Armstrong Airport at New Orleans. The flight was largely uneventful and amongst our fellow passengers were 13 or 14 other members of the QUEST group.
On landing in NOLA, half an hour early, we soon had our baggage and met up with the representative from Road Scholar who loaded us onto a bus for the 15 minutes ride into the city and to our hotel the Holiday Inn Downtown.
We were not able to check in immediately as the hotel had been full the night before so we decided to go for a walk. It was a sunny, cool day. After a while wandering the streets we found our way to the French Quarter which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. The streets were quite crowded as it was Sunday and this is a holiday weekend with Monday being Martin Luther King Day.
We passed some of the smaller streets with the iconic wrought iron balustrades and doorways, some of which were already decorated for the forthcoming Mardi Gras celebrations.
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| An old gas street lamp on the edge of the French Quarter |
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| Some strange twisted trees on the street |
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| A statue of John McDonogh, a pioneer of NOLA public schools in Lafayette Park |
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| A wierd sculpture entitled 'Bunny' |
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| A street-scape on the edge of the French Quarter illustrating the colorful houses. |
We ate shrimp, grits, seafood étouffée, fried oysters washed down with Pimms and beer. It was very tasty but extremely filling and we could hardly stand when we were through. This is going to be a tough trip!!!! We walked (waddled) back to the hotel via Basin Street and asked if they had a room yet which they did even though we were ahead of the check in time. We had soon been reunited with out luggage and were in our room on the 17th floor. Very little ceremony was conducted before we were both asleep.
We were awoken by the phone as we had missed the beginning of the Road Scholar briefing. So we hurried downstairs to one of the hotel conference rooms where Sharon Owens our tour director was giving information on the week's activities. This including menu selections for some of the meals which we will be taking as part of the various visits. The program is probably more organized than we are used to and I think we may be making some solo jaunts to various places of interest during the week. Most days there are quite long lecture sessions on culture, history, architecture, etc. then there are visits to various parts of the city. We have a long list of things to do and will intersperse these with the RS program.
We also have personal listening devices which are primarily intended for those who are hard of hearing, which we are not.
After the orientation session, dinner was served at a buffet in the hotel but after our large lunch, neither of us could face more food, so we retired to the room to unpack and to regroup for tomorrow's activities which include a lecture on the history of NOLA and in the afternoon a visit to various areas of the city including the Lower 9th ward which was so badly damaged in Hurricane Katrina. Tomorrow evening we have a cruise and dinner on a paddle wheeler called the Creole Queen.
I am still having trouble getting photos from the camera to the blog but the struggle continues.
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