The threat of industrial action at Heathrow didn’t materialise, but we left the taxi pickup at the same time which meant that we were actually sitting in the business class lounge with drink in hand at the time we had previously expected to be leaving home. This really wasn’t a hardship and the time passed relatively quickly as I alternated between by game and book. There was a small problem when we went to board the aircraft as there was something wrong with the gangway although looking out of the window it looked more like a problem with the front wheel to me. This only caused a slight delay so although we took off a little late we arrived on schedule. In the seat on the opposite side of the isle was Mark Webber ex F1 driver who seemed to refuse all food and drink and read for the whole flight which to be honest was a bit annoying as he was reading a paper book which meant that he had the light on all flight which made it a little difficult to snooze so I read my book as well. As soon as we got off the plane we were in immigration then it was just a case of waiting for our bags and meeting up with our driver to be taken to downtown Nashville. Driving into the city at almost 7pm the temperature was 90F so I think it is going to be a bit warmer than home! We arrived at the hotel just before the end of the complimentary bar so we picked up a couple of beers and headed up to the room for a bit of a relax before heading off to bed to recover before exploring the area tomorrow.
After breakfast we set off ready to explore Nashville, we walked down to Broadway which is the Main Street where all the Honky Tonk bars are although they were very quite at 9.30 in the morning. We stopped at the Visitor Information centre and decided that we would buy a tourist pass as it covers a number of the sites we want to go and see from there we walked down to the Trolly Bus stop. In Nashville the Hop on hop off bus route is about 90 minutes and we originally planned to do this a couple of times to reach the sites that are a bit further out. Unfortunately the trolly has a ‘live commentary’ which basically means that you are at the mercy of the driver and their sense of humour, our first driver was a bit over the top and to be honest both Chris and I tuned out as he was rather strange and therefore quite hard to follow but we stayed on until we reached Belmont Mansion this is our first Antebellum House and one of the oldest in the area. Adelicia and Joseph Acklen who were once among Nashvilles richest citizens built the Italian Villa house in 1853. It was part of a large country estate created as a summer getaway from the families Louisiana plantations. Adelicia was married 3 times, her first husband was 24 years older than her and very rich, when he died she was left his entire estate of 3 cotton plantations and when she married the next two husbands she made them both sign what were effectively pre-nuptial agreements which meant that she kept the money. On a not quite so positive note she had 11 children and from what I can make out only 2 or 3 lived past the age of 11. Despite all the wealth and status they were not immune to the troubles of war. In December 1864 the 4th Corps of the Union Army occupied the house and grounds before the Battle of Nashville, however one of the positives of this was that they didn’t destroy the house or furniture, however years later the building was brought by two ladies who turned it into a school which subsequently became Belmont University. The House originally had both formal gardens as well as 177 acres of park land that contained a zoo, ice house, aviary, water tower, bath house and bowling alley, she opened the park to the public for free on Monday to Saturday but it was closed on Sunday as she felt people should spend Sunday at prayer and with the family. We arrived just as a guided tour started and went all round the house then as we were coming out the trolly arrived so we jumped back on to head back to downtown and get some lunch. As it was now lunch time all of the bars and restaurants had bands playing and in some of the bar’s they had a different band on each floor. We had some lunch then jumped back on the hop on hop off trolly, the plan this time to was go as far as Centennial Park, they actually have two but this was the first then walk back to downtown which is abut 3 miles, this time we had a different guide and he was great, really informative and easy to hear / understand so in the end we decided to stay on the trolly for the whole loop. The Centennial park is a 132 acre park that was originally farmland that belonged to Ann Robertson Jonson Cockrill who was the first teacher in the state and sister of General James Robertson. The park was used for the centennial celebrations in 1897 where replicas of major landmarks from around the world were reproduced in plaster, One of these buildings was the Parthenon and the park contains a full scale replica of the original in Athens, this was the centrepiece as Nashville is known as the Athens of the South. This is now an art gallery so we decided we wouldn’t really be missing much if we didn’t go in so we continued the journey. We went down music row which is where all the music studios are, this is a very strange street as most of the studios look like houses and the road itself with a couple of exceptions looks just like any suburban street but behind the doors some of the most famous songs have been recorded such as the Jonny Cash song a boy named Sue! It is also home to RCA Studio B which is where Elvis did most of his recording and next door is Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) which is where Paul McCartney recorded a number of songs. At the end of Music Row is a Roundabout or Buddy Killeen Circle which has the Musica Statue on it, this statue features nine nude figures male and female dancing. It is approximately 38 feet tall and each figures is 14 or 15 feet tall, this was built in 2003 and caused uproar when it was unveiled as we are in the heart of the Bible Belt here, apparently people kept adding clothes during the night to cover up the status one person even purchased replica shirts from the local ice hockey team to cover them! Towards the end of the circuit is the Union Station building which is now a hotel, the station was opened in 1900 and was the hub of several railroads. Finally we got back to where we started and started heading back to the hotel. We stopped in a boot shop which seemed to be advertising the fact that if you brought one pair of cowboy boots you could have two free – I am sure there was a catch but I am not quite sure what it was! We had a little relax in the room as being out in 92+ degrees had taken its toll then we headed down to the bar as this hotel has free snack and drinks in the evening so as we were still quite full from lunch we decided this was a great option and a good way to prepare for tomorrow where we will definitely do a bit more walking.