Atlanta Day 2 - a city re-invented

After breakfast on the porch, we took the train to Midtown and theWoodruff Arts Center, home to three renowned institutions: the Alliance Theatre, the Symphony Orchestra and the fantastic High Museum of Art. The museum's campus was designed by two world-renowned architects: Richard Meier (1983) and Renzo Piano (expansion, 2005). On the L vast grounds artwork is set up, e.g. the famous "House III" by Roy Lichtenstein (left photo).

 

 

On to the Margaret Mitchell House. The famous author lived in the building with her second husband, John Marsh. They occupied a small apartment on the first floor, and nicknamed apartment no. 1 “The Dump.” Shortly after moving into the apartment in 1925, Mitchell quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal, primarily because of a foot injury, and, home-bound, started writing "Gone With the Wind". As a book and as a movie it became a highly influencial bestseller! 

Midtown - with the Georgia Tech Uni campus (left) -  has definitively picked up and kind of became the new "downtown". Colony Square (also a fan zone during the world championships), new highrises and restaurants and shops are really an upgrade to the formerly not so attractive neighborhood. 

After a quick visit at the Peachtree Plaza "Green Market", a glimpse at the famous historic Fox Theater and a quick lunch at The Varsity (a must and an institution for dogs and burgers!), we took a bus (apparently, not highly popular with white people) out to the East of town, to Le Ponce Market, a real highlight of Atlanta!

 

Oh, almost forgot to mention all the fancy driver-less Waymos - reminded us of San Francisco! – and the strange delivery robots we noticed in the city center!

Named for Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León’s mythical search for the Fountain of Youth, Ponce de Leon Springs attracted Atlantans seeking rest and rejuvenation in the 1860s. The springs and the surrounding gardens were converted into the Ponce de Leon amusement park, which was dubbed “The Coney Island of Atlanta.”The amusement park closed in the early 1920s and Sears, Roebuck & Co of Chicago purchased the land for a retail store and warehouse distribution center for the Southeastern US. The Sears showrooms close in 1989. In 1991, the City of Atlanta purchased the building and transformed it into a center for city offices,  City Hall East. 

 

After nearly two decades the City of Atlanta gave up the historic structure at the crossroads of four neighborhoods and on the future Atlanta BeltLine transit corridor and it became a multi-functional entertainment complex with very creative shops, many of small local producers/artists, restaurants, offices, apartments, a hotel, etc. Huge, and unique in regard to its "industrial atmosphere". Very well preserved, too, and directly adjacent to the BeltLine it opened in 2014.

 

The Atlanta Beltline is a currently 22-mile long loop of trails and parks, connecting 45 neighborhoods and creating a vibrant public space for recreation, art and culture. When complete, the Atlanta BeltLine will comprise of 33-miles of trail network.We walked part of the beltline, admired the "arboretum" along the trail, the artwork, plus some great food/drink offerings. The weather was perfect for this excursion and for some people-watching, too!

Also located on the BeltLine: The 3 Taverns Brewery,,, (one of two!) - for us the grand finale of an interesting sunny day,,,

Atlanta Day 1 - reminiscing

Our first morning in Atlanta we started by walking through our neighborhood over to a more "industrial zone" of Edgewood to buy some groceries at a nice, modern Kroger Supermarket. After breakfast we took MARTA into downtown.

Atlanta was founded in 1837 as a railroad station, a terminus, and that was the name of the city at the beginning: "Terminus". Two years later homes and a store were built and the settlement grew as well as rail lines expanded and arrived from four different directions. This was also one reason, that during the American Civil War Atlanta became a distribution hub for the Confederate troups. 

 In 1864 General Sherman and the Union troups set the city on fire and destroyed it. This was only the first big fire, in 1917 "The Great Atlanta Fire" started in the  Old Fourth Ward and was even more devastating. But, Atlanta, at the end, rose like Phoenix out of the ashes,,,

                                              

 

 

 

 

 

With anti-black Jim Crow laws coming up in the 1910s, a black middle and upper class settled in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood and Auburn Ave became   "the most prosperous Negro street in the nation". Not much left of that image anymore today!  In the 1950s, black people started moving into new suburbs and still today, about half of the population in Atlanta is black.

Atlanta was home to Martin Luther King Jr. and a hub for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Unfortunately, right now the Visitor Center of the MLK National Park is closed for renovations, same for his birth home. Only Ebenezer Baptist Church, where MLK preached, and the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change with his and his wife Coretta's gravesite (below) were open. 

The MLK Rose garden:

,,, and the historic Municipal Market Hall in Sweet Auburn (1918) below:

In 1996, Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympics with lots of  new facilities and infrastructure being built.  Main addition was the "Centennial Olympic Park" (below), vast grounds, mostly lawns framed by some museums, a ferris wheel, fountains etc. Below a view towards the World of Coca Cola and the College Football Hall of Fame, both attractions we had to revisit!

The World of Coca Cola became much more "inversive" since our last visit, with terminals to play around and interactive exhibitions. A favorite of visitors are still the tasting stations with Coca Cola drinks from all over the world. Nevertheless, the museum gives a great introduction how Coca Cola was "invented" by a pharmacist named John S. Pemberton in 1886. He sold the rights to Asa Griggs Candler, mayor of Atlanta, in 1888.

The Vault, in which the "original recipe" of Coca Cola is kept:

Below, a new part of the museum: A reconstructed village with the original pharmacy and other Coke-connected buildings.

On to the College Football Hall of Fame

Around downtown and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium (used for the upcoming Soccer World Championships) - there are still last-minute renovations going on to get the different fan zones ready:

 

Downtown Atlanta has sort of lost its "heart and soul", which was formerly "The Underground" (below). It's shut down for mayor renovations and not much is going on at the moment. The next day we noticed that Midtown took over ,,, more on that tomorrow!

 

We took one of the rare busses from Sweet Auburn, the historic black neighborhood, which was a bit disappointing, to Little Five Points - an eclectic neighborhood, with eclectic shops and people. Lots of vintage stores, record stores, vape stores, tattoo parlors, etc.

 

 

Back "home" we walked (to get our steps, aka 15 k in, or, rather due to lack of public transport) and enjoyed the rest of the evening on our porch/balcony on the rocking chairs.

For the 85th time: Back to the USA!

 

Got up at 4 am on Tuesday morning, rain pooring down and under 40 deg F! We took the first streetcar to the main train station at 5 am, then by regular train and fast train on to MUC, in total about 2:20 hours - and, no disturbances or delays! Check-in and security went quickly as well. Our plane to Newark/NY - a B747-400 - departed about half an hour delayed - but, fortunately, it was only about 50 % full and we had plenty of space to spread out. Food was bad as usual, mushy and dull in taste, but in total this UA flight from MUC to EWR was smooth and uneventful.

Arrived almost on time and flashed through immigration to baggage pick-up and re-check through security and by bus to Terminal A. Below a photo of our approach to New York and of EWR Airport.

Back to the roots! Haven't been back to Atlanta since 2015, but, it was much earlier when we started our "careers" as travelwriters exactly here: Before the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, we secured commissions for our two very first travel guide books: one, a city guide on Atlanta and New Orleans ("New and Old South") at Reise Know-How Verlag, the other a regional guide on the U.S. South, part of a nicely designed series in the formerly fantastic Swiss Artemis Publishing House.Visited the city several times for research then.

Then, in the 1990s, we proudly hold a Ph.D. in archeology in hands, but no real jobs. We were only able to secure a short career as archeologists at our city department. For a short period Peter worked as a lecturer in a Munich publishing house, and, in addition, we were the editors of an American Sports Magazine, which alltogether provided the money to make a modest living. But, we needed to expand and therefore started to get in contact with guidebook publishers. 

Atlanta, the future Olympic city, was, at that time, a completely unknown U.S. destination, a fly-over city, which especially Delta used as their main hub. First, we planned to cover Atlanta exclusively, but our publisher wasn't convinced and so, New Orleans became the other half of the book. First impression of Atlanta: Even in the 90s, they had "MARTA" (above photo), a convenient and cheap public transportation system from/to the airport. Second, they had their specific people, with a "Southern Drawl", and, predominantly "black" people, all of them very talkative, friendly and helpful. 

 

Staying in Edgewood this time, an Eastern suburb of Atlanta, conveniently connected to downtown and other neighborhoods by MARTA. Below right, "our" house, where we stay in the second floor apartment with the balcony. Really nice, quiet neighborhood. 

 

We dropped our luggage in the apartment at around 7:20 pm (touchdown of the plane in ATL was at 6 pm, luggage pick-up and train to our AirBnB was easy-peasy!) and out we were again to catch another train to Decatur, where lots of craftbreweries are located. Called it a day at "Inner Voice" with a beer and a slice of pizza.

 

View towards downtown from the MARTA station on our way home,,,

More photos of Atlanta tomorrow,,, it's been a long first day in town.