A City of Squares

On to Savannah, where we received a warm welcome at lunch with Erica, the local tourism rep in the Collins Quarter Café on Bull Street, owned by an Australian couple and known for creative food and excellent coffee.

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia, established in 1733 as a British Colony and designed by James Oglethorpe, who became famous for his town planning: in equally sized plots with over 20 parklike squares. It’s very different frorm Charleston, more spread out, greener and, excellently preserved, since it wasn’t destroyed in Civil War. General Sherman had presented this city to President Abraham Lincoln as a gift. Starting in the 1950ies a private initiative was able to make sure that Savannah's historic district is now one of the main attractions in the Deep South.

At almost 90 deg. F we explored the city all afternoon. Last time we had last visited was in the late 1990ies. Not so much has changed with the historic buildings - as the Cotton Exchange, the Factor’s Walk and the Riverfront below, connected by stairs and walkways. Completely new to us was the Jepson Center (a modern art museum, which is part of the Telfair Mansion & Museum - see pic) - spectacular esp. in regard to its architecture, and SCAD - the new College of Arts & Design.

We checked out the History and the Railroad Museum briefly and enjoyed the special atmosphere of the series of parks, before we checked in in our B&B, the Azalea Inn, a beautiful historic home with 10 rooms and three villas, pool, evening reception, gourmet breakfast and immeculate service.

After a warm Southern welcome by the innkeeper, we headed out again for dinner at the Olde Pink House. Excellent food, though a little over-prized, and good company by the tourism rep of Coastal Georgia. Walked back home at about 10 pm and were bone-tired.

On the next day, wednesday, after an excellent three-course-breakfast, we continued our exploration of Old Town Savannah in the morning with more picure-taking, checking, museums' visits and walking in pretty humid-hot weather before we headed out to the Islands in the afternoon.

In the swamps and on the rice fields

Overslept the Memorial Day Fireworks in the evening and departed at 8 am on tuesday for Caw Caw Interpretive Center on the way out of Charleston. Though we had written about it in our guidebook we haven’t seen it before and it was good, that we stopped by. First, the park ranger immediately knew, that we are Germans and asked us whether we got the recommendation from Iwanowskis guidebook (he even pronounced it correctly!). Second, the landscape is worth being seen, also the bird and wildlife, and, there are lots of trails and an interpretive center.

Caw Caw – named for the native people who originally lived in the area – was once part of several rice plantations and home to enslaved Africans who applied their technology and skills in agriculture to carve the series of rice fields out of cypress swamps. After civil war it went down and, finally, in 1910 hurricanes destroyed the production and farming was over. Since then nature took over again and now it’s a fascinating mixture of cypress forests, marshland, swamp, grassland and waterways with ruins of settlement. Highly interesting!

A visit to Charles' Town

After having arrived to Charleston on sunday evening, we started early on monday morning, Memorial Day, and drove from our hotel in North Charleston into Charleston, a pittoresque, but pretty touristy town of about 130.000 people. Since the last time we had been here (at least 15 years ago) it hasn’t changed that much. It has been touristy before and still is, but nevertheless it’s a „must-see“.


The city was founded in 1670 as "Charles Town" in honor of King Charles II of England and is considered one of the oldest European settlements. It is also called the „Pearl of the Old South“ and architecture is just amazing. Old town is situated between City Market and Battery Park - on the waterfront, at the confluence of Ashley and Cooper River. Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, always has and still plays an important economical role.

But first of all, Charleston is known for its rich history and well-preserved architecture. South Carolina was the first state which separated from the Union and therefore in April 1861 the Civil War started with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, offshore Charleston on an island, by the Confederates.

There was a saying, that after having been hurt badly in Civil War, the city was „too proud to white-wash“. Therefore a whole lot of old architecture was preserved and since it was a very wealthy city in the 19th century, until Civil War started, the mansions were really stately and luxurious, as well as the gardens surrounding them were magnificent. Also, interiors of houses (some of them can be visited) were very elaborate, mostly European style, with imported furniture, tableware, artwork etc.

The wealthy (white) plantation owners knew how to live and let their slaves, captured in Africa and shipped over by the Brits, work for them on the plantations, mostly on rice, indigo or cotton fields in the surroundings of the city. Most of the farmers owned city mansions to do their business and trade slaves and goods and, in addition, plantation homes on the country site, esp. for times when it was too hot and humid in the city. And, it can REALLY get humid and warm here – even in May! Still nowadays, the city seems to be pretty wealthy and we were wondering about who owns all these fantastic homes and how astronomically high real estate prices will be. Sweetgrass artwork (see pic) is very common in Charleston and baskets made by Afroamericans are sold at many locations, e.g. at the famous city market.

After a long walk in Charleston, we wanted to visit three of the surrounding plantations: Middleton, Magnolia Place and Drayton Hall. Unfortunately in the late afternoon, at Drayton Hall, we noticed that one of the tires of our rental car showed a strange "bubble" and, closer inspections showed a crack as well. So, out of necessity, we had to skip the other two plantations and instead drove to Charleston Airport to exchange the car for another one, which was equally „old“ and a bit run-down, but, at least we didn’t have to be scared about a burst tire anymore. After having gotten a Hyundai Elantra for the old Chevy Cruz, with over 50.000 mi. on the tachometer, we decided to call it a day and drove to the Tanger Outlet Center first and to dinner at Jim & Nick’s BBQ then. The day ended good, with a meal of pulled pork and beef brisket to go with a local brew.

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.

In the Air, again

Well, it’s not been a great start: Friday morning we got up at 4:45 am, had an easy drive to Munich Airport, got upgraded in regard to parking (the cheap open lot we had booked was full and we got a voucher for the parking garage closeby the Terminal) and check-in and controls went smooth. All fine and we were happy.

About half an hour before boarding the Delta plane to Atlanta, they made an announcement that they are having a technical problem and need one technical part to be delivered from London/Heathrow. Departure time was pushed back for three hours first, but then, at scheduled departure time (10:10 am) we’ve been told that the part won't be on the plane from London and that therefore they have to cancel the flight. Never before, we have had a cancellation that fast, usually they let people wait and check out all options, but not so yesterday. Apparently, main reason was not the oil temperature gauge (which had to be replaced) but the „timed-out“ crew.

Anyway, they also announced that other planes to the U.S. are fully booked because of Lentern holidays starting in Germany and Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. No chance to get another flight on the same day. So, we waited quite a bit, first to be let out of the boarding area, then to get the luggage back, at the ticket counter for re-booking and, finally, for the bus. Most passengers were brought to a Marriott Hotel in nearby Freising. Though we could have driven home, we accepted the hotel offer, because didn’t want to stand in traffic jams on the autobahn twice and get up very early again on the next morning. We had to inform our tourism contact in Georgia to cancel one night in our Atlanta hotel and to re-arrange our itinerary. It’s been so annoying!

In the afternoon we took the train from Freising to Munich to get some distraction, after return we were fed in the hotel with salads and pasta, got free drinks and were picked up again by bus at 5:30 am this morning. In contrast to yesterday, long lines this morning at the check-in counters since all people arrived at the same time. Flight (see pic taken over Greenland) - not completely booked this time - departed at 8:15 am and landed at 12:20 p.m. - after 10 hours - in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia. Thanks to Global Entry we made it to our downtown Hilton Hotel in record time: not quite 1,5 hours from touch-down to the hotel by public transport (shuttlebus/train). At 2 pm we were on the road again to check out things in Atlanta in record time, in 24 hours instead of two days.

Visit in "The Beverly Hills of the Southwest"

Back to Scottsdale, for the third year in a row, staying at our friends' beautiful home. We are so fortunate, to have friends like them and a place like that to stay! It's been just the right thing to do after more than three weeks on the road and we finally got some rest.

The weather was anything but perfect: we had clouds, we had frost at night, we had some sun and we had one full day of rain – didn't need our shorts and sandals – but, nevertheless, it was peacefully calm and comfortable, we had good conversation, great dinners, excellent steaks and met with our friends' friends.


One day we explored an indian village and a western town nearby Scottsdale, hiked in the McDowell Mountains (see pics), explored Phoenix and Tempe, checked out a couple of "open houses", went shopping, walked Harvey, the dog, in the neighborhood, and, also, worked at least a couple of hours each day to get our soon-due proofreading of a book script done. In the desert - where we hiked - shrubs and cacti were just getting buds and it won't take too long anymore that they'll start blooming, especially now, after they got rain.

Yesterday, we had a tour with the curator in the "Western Spirit - Scottsdale's Museum of the West Museum", just open since January. Besides the spectacular architecture (a "green building", which is LEED Gold certified, see pic), the exhibitions are well worth being seen. They don't have a permanent collection, but all artwork is on loan from private collections and other museums. There are always several exhibitions at the same time and they change frequently. Very nicely presented Western Art (old and modern) under certain topics, a great collection of saddles, spurs, bites etc. and great sculptures in the inner courtyard. Also, the shop and the café are worth a visit!

Explored Old Scottsdale a bit after our tour. Since (baseball) spring training was about to start, the shops, galleries and restaurants were packed and it was hard to get parking. Concluded our last day in Scottsdale with a good dinner in a mexican restaurant with our friends – we will miss company and good food!

These were our final four days in the U.S. and we are right now sitting at PHX Airport, waiting to board our plane to Houston. Fortunately, we are flying out of Houston, directly to MUC – probably a good choice considering that the East Coast is still drowning in snow. Our rental van, rather a "bus", proved to be comfortable and not too expensive: gas milage was about 25 mph and considering cheap gas prices, we didn't even spent $ 100 for the whole trip of about 1350 miles (2160 km) on gas.

"The Duke" and Old Tucson

Twelve miles west of Tucson, surrounded by Tucson Mountain and Saguaro National Park - a scenery like out of a western movie: Old Tucson, film setting and entertainment park in once. It all started in 1939 with Columbia Pictures and the movie "Arizona". The Tohono O'odham - the local indian tribe (see pic) – then assisted in production, primarily by building solid adobe style buildings for the set, which are still existing for the most part. Only a couple of years ago, their merits were recognized and an indian village was added to Old Tucson to show people how the native people, the original settlers of the region, lived.

In the 1950ies the "Last Outpost", "Lone Ranger", "Cimarron", later "Rio Bravo", "El Dorado", "Zorro", "Billie the Kid","Tombstone" and series like "Bonanza", "High Chaparral, "The Little House on the Prairie", "Gunsmoke", and others were produced here. John Wayne, "The Duke", became a regular in Old Tucson, starring many movies. Still today, Old Tucson is a popular film location.

Robert Shelton had taken over the film set in the 1960ies and transformed the complex into an attraction to make it more profitable. Nowadays 75 buildings and a typical Southwest Main Street, a saloon, a hotel, a town hall, a mission, a sheriff's office, a civil war fort, a ranch, an historic locomotive, are to be seen here, as well as the Old Tucson Story Museum with costumes, posters, photos etc. – 70 years of film & movie history compressed into a small space.

Besides a visit to the museum, there are regular tours, Old West shows, gun fights, stunt shows, saloon dance, gold panning, trail rides (see pic), a carousel and rides with a small train through the desert for visitors as well as an excellent restaurant, called Big Jake BBQ. We thoroughly enjoyed our morning in Old Tucson!

It's Rodeo Time!

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Tucson Rodeo - this was the main reason for our visit to Tucson this year. The first La Fiesta - a celebration of the cowboys – took place on three days in 1925. Today it has grown to a nine-day celebration centered on the Tucson Rodeo, one of the top 25 professional rodeos in North America. This year the parade and rodeo was celebrating its 90th birthday and we were fortunate to be part of the big party!

The original idea for this event came from a "snow-bird" from the East Coast by name Leighton Kramer: he wanted to draw visitors to Tucson during the slow mid-winter season. In 1925 Tucson was still a frontier town and not much was going on. Since then, each February local groups, organizations and businesses saddle their horses and hitch up their buggies and carriages for the "Celebration of the Cowboys.” The day of the parade is even a school holiday, universities are closed and many businesses as well. The Tucson Rodeo Parade is considered the world’s longest non-motorized parade. This two-hour spectacle around the rodeo grounds features western-themed floats and buggies, historic horse-drawn coaches, Mexican folk dancers, highschool marching bands and outfitted riders on beautiful horses. An estimated 200,000 spectators view the parade each year.

To watch this colorful parade from the grandstands, we had to get up early (left the hotel at 7 am already!) to avoid street blocks and to still get parking on the rodeo grounds. It's been cold in the morning (only about 40 deg F), we needed our warm jackets for a change, but sun was out and it became a beautiful day. We had popcorn for breakfast and watched the pre-parade entertainment (a great high school mariachi band - see pic - , an old gent's cowboy choir and some western show) before the parade started at 9 am and took for about two hours.

On the rodeo grounds there were boothes of all kind being set up: food vendors - good mexican food! -, hats, boots, souvenirs etc. Before the "real" rodeo started, kids - more girls than boys! – were preforming in the arena. At the Mutton Bustin’ contest, 4-to 6-year-olds tested their riding skills on sheep, followed by kids ages 7-12 performing in barrel race and calf roping.




Nowadays the entry list for Tucson shows the most renowned "stars" of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) from all over the U.S. and Canada, competing for more than $460,000 in prize money, while about 11,000 fans are cheering for them. Rodeo events include bull riding, bareback and saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping and women’s barrel racing. At 2 pm the competition started with the bareback riding and as media members we were fortunate to be able to watch either directly at the chutes or on a viewpoint above the chutes. So, we've been able to watch the cowboys getting ready for their 8-second-ride. We also noticed how well-kept and healthy the bucking horses appeared and how the whole procedure went. It was fascinating and eye-opening and it changed our perception about rodeo completely (more about that later!).