This morning after breakfast we walked down to the mighty Mississippi River again and around Jackson Square then back to the Hotel to catch a Highlights of New Orleans tour. Carol is our tour guide and she turned out to be quite a character.
New Orleans is 300 years old this year.
Our tour takes us on an adventure through a city filled with history and culture, we drive through the Garden district with its magnificent old homes, through the Mardi Gras route and past St Louis Cathedral. We explore and lunch at the French Quarter (a local delicacy -Oysters Creole) and visit City Park, a stop at St Louis Cemetery #3 and learn why the tombs are above ground and so large.
Things we learnt while we were on the tour. New Orleans is actually 90-110 Miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. The river here is between 250 to 500 feet deep and is 1/2 mile wide. All streets in New Orleans, rather than running north south, east and west follow the course of the river. The French Quarter actually has Spanish architecture. The original French buildings were burnt down in fires and when the area was rebuilt the Spanish were here so it was rebuilt in a Spanish style. 5000 people live in the French Quarter, 10 million visit each year. New Orleans has 60” rain each year. We drove past Tulare University, a beautiful complex and I’m very glad my kids didn’t go there with fees of $51,000 per year not including food and board. It has a student enrolment of 9000.
During the afternoon we stopped at City Park and Morning Call Cafe for the world famous Beignets. Carole had talked these up all tour so we were looking forward to tasting them. Off the bus and into the cafe and people are lined up and waiting for their serves. We found a table and were served coffee and Beignets. Well first impressions, interesting. Coffee was average, so Philip said and the “World Famous” Beignets were deep fried dough balls dusted with icing sugar. Three each. Philip tried his and left 2 1/2. I tried mine and ate one. Dry, doughy and no taste. Others raved about theirs up and ate them all very quickly.
The cemetery was interesting with all the family crypts above ground. The ground is so marshy that bodies cannot be buried so they built family tombs. A body is placed in a casket inside the tomb and the tomb is sealed for 1 year and 1 day. Then it’s opened and the casket is emptied of its bones and the bones are pushed to the back of the tomb and the casket awaits its next body. This continues for many many many years. As each person is buried their name is added to the front or sides of the tomb as on a normal headstone.
Tassie Travellers 
I’d love to visit here. This city is on the bucket list.
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