From our "base" at the French Quarter RV park, we explored the French Quarter via our bikes. This allowed us to cover substantial distances in a short time.
The photos below are what we saw.
Some of the rigs in the
park were very upscale. The rig above on the right must be worth
a half a million or more. The mog, while battle proven and highly
capable off road, looks pretty "hillbilly" compared to these units.
We headed into the French
Quarter on our bikes to see what was there. Interesting old
buildings lined the streets.
Some buildings were
refurbished but retained the architectural style of the Quarter.
This building was labeled
as the Louisiana Supreme Court building and was very impressive.
Due to the narrow streets and my 28 mm lens, I was unable to
encompass more than just a fraction of the building in the photo.
NOLA hosts many conventions. The locals call this gEEk week in honor of the electrical engineers (EE) that are visiting as part of this convention.
We visited the cemetery
that was next to the RV park to see what was there.
There were row after row
of monuments, all above ground. The high water table makes and
underground burial impossible because the coffins will "float" out of
the ground.
Some of the monuments
were in better repair than others.
The monument above has
obviously been refurbished and well maintained. Note that the
earliest burial in this one was 1809, the most recent in 2005.
From the cemetery, we headed toward the river. Along the way, we passed one of the many street cars that run along Canal Street.
We rode along the
Mississippi River.
Above is a monument to
Holocaust victims.
The waterfront has a nice
pedestrian mall and provides access to the paddle wheeler boats that
provide tours.
From our position, we got a good view of the massive bridge over the river.
There were a number of
interesting sculptures along the waterfront.
This statue was next to the World Trade building.
The Riverwalk area had a
nice fountain.
The overcast made high
fidelity color rendition a problem, but trust me that this statue is
brightly colored.
From the water, we headed
back into the French Quarter and threaded our way through the narrow
streets. Above, you can see one of the entrances to the Supreme
Court building.
Bourbon Street was not
very crowded because we were there in the middle of the afternoon.
On our bikes we passed a number of horse-drawn carriages.
A number of the buildings
in the Quarter were quite old. Not every building was in good
repair. Napoleon House, shown above, could use some help.
There were several nice parks close to the Quarter.
Plenty of flash on
Bourbon Street to lure tourists into the various businesses. Many
of the stores were adult themed.
Many of the buildings had
ornate iron work for railings.
This was a very nice
building, but likely not built during the same period as the other
buildings in the Quarter.
The French Quarter is interesting, but
tuned to separate tourists from their cash. But, once you look
past that fact, there are many interesting historical things to see and
do. Plus, there are tons of restaurants and bars.
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Photos
and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2009, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.