Atlanta in 24 hours

It almost sounds like chef Anthony Bourdain TV series ... for us it was Atlanta in 24 hours, which is just crazy, but feasable...Tickets and passes were left in our Hilton Hotel as promised and we started immediately after having thrown our luggage into our room in the 27th floor (with a great view!). Out again at 2 pm at almost 80 deg. F (27 C) - what a difference to what we had at home recently!

We started with a walk to Centennial Olympic Park, which we knew from 2005 - our last time of a total of 10 times we've been to Atlanta. Have been visiting this city, which is for most people just a stop-over to switch planes, so often, because our travel writers' careers started here before the Olympics in 1996 with two guidebooks: Atlanta-New Orleans and The Old South.

The park area has changed and was developed a lot, it's become the „green heart“ and gathering point of downtown Atlanta. It was packed on this Memorial Day Weekend, kids were enjoying the "jumping fountain" and the ferris wheel, people were playing on the lawn and long waiting lines were forming in front of the World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. Being the less crowded museum out of the three in the park, we decided to visit the Civil Rights Institute first, and this was a good idea: Highly interesting, instructively done, a good mixture of multimedia and documents in a fantastic building (see pic of the inside). On to CNN (Ted Turner's Empire) and to the MARTA train station. MARTA brought us to roughly towards the direction of Turner Field, passing by the Capitol Building with it's eye-catching golden dome. A good 20 min. swift walk to the stadium was pretty exhausting in the sun, but we had such good tickets that we wanted at least to watch part of the baseball game Milwaukee : Atlanta Braves.

After four innings we left and walked all the way to Five Points/Underground. We remembered it as an attractive shopping mall in the historic setting of a former railroad station, with restaurants, sights and a visitor center, but it has changed and became a bit shabby and run-down; lots of empty shops and restaurants, too. With tired feet, all sweaty and drained we called it a day at about 7 pm and went for a beer in one of Atlanta's microbreweries: Max Lager’s.

Sunday morning we were back to Centennial Olympic Park to get into Coca-Cola World immediately at opening at 9 am. Watched films and checked out the exhibition and tried a couple of the many Coca-Cola drinks they are offering for free in the tasting room. On to the Aquarium for a short run-through, then the College Football Hall of Fame. We knew that from South Bend/Indiana but it is now much more attractive and comprehensive. Great building and a great exhibition, much better than we expected it to be. Wished we would have had more time...

Back to the hotel at about noon, check-out and a short walk over to the Hertz office to get our rental car. The High Museum of Art – our next stop - was expanded since we’ve seen it for the last time. Renzo Piano has added a new wing to the snow-white, eye-catching Richard Meier museum building.

On the way to this spectacular art museum we passed the famous historic Fox Theater and Margaret Mitchell’s house. On we drove to Sweet Auburn, the afro-american neighborhood, where Martin L. King lived and preached. There is the rather new M.L. King National Historic Site and the (older) King Center with MLK’s tomb in a reflecting pool. Nearby: the Ebenezer Baptist Church and MLK’s Birthhome - a perfect addition to the Civil Rights Institute we visited yesterday and the movie „Selma“ I watched on the plane. Atlanta always had the reputation to be „too busy to hate“ and had (and still has) a large percentage of wealthy, well-educated afro-americans. Not sure whether they still form the majority of population nowadays, but at least it's a considerably big percentage.

Later than planned, out of necessity, after 2 pm we left Atlanta to get to Charleston/SC. Rather boring drive on I-20, almost 5 hours with one short potty-break. Arrived to our hotel in North Charleston at 7 pm and just grabbed a bite to eat nearby.