4th and 5th February
Today we arrived at a very cold (9 degrees centigrade) and windy New Orleans a big contrast to the 32 degrees we had in Progresso less than two days ago. However, armed with coats and jumpers we walked through the Terminal ignoring all the tempting shops on display to the Riverside Walk towards the French Quarter of town. The French Quarter was everything we had hoped for, with its narrow streets and balconied houses, with bars and music coming from every corner. We zig zagged through the streets along many you will know the names of, including Bourbon Street, Royal Street, Canal Street, Basin Street, and many others. As it is the Mardi Gras season many of the houses were decorated in Green, Gold and Purple, the Mardi Gras colours. We also came across a Childrens Parade, where Doreen started her bead collection.
After three hours of walking around and taking in the atmosphere, including a visit to the French Market, we stopped at the Cafe du Monde famous for its Beignets (sugar coated donuts), we were not sure that it was suitable for Doreens diet, but surely ONCE wouldn't do any harm!!!!
After walking around for another few hours, we continued our walk back up Canal Street into Bourbon Street, where we found a Hard Rock Cafe for a light dinner, consisting of a man sized burger and chips, and again would ONCE do any harm to Doreen's diet. Tonight there were three Mardi Gras Parades planned so we walked down the route of the Parades and managed to find a suitable viewing point amongst all the crowds. Geoffrey complained to Doreen that although we had packed the kitchen sink, we had not packed our step ladder to get a better view.
After two hours waiting the Parade started to come by - brightly decorated floats, bands, and cheerleaders dancing (who must have been absolutely frozen). On the backs of all the floats were people in all kinds of fancy dress throwing beads, flashing light necklaces, coins, hats, etc. etc into the crowd and we kept warm catching them.
It was now gone nine o'clock in the evening and only half the parades had passed, but we were now frozen to the core, so we decided to return to the ship for a well earned hot drink.
The next morning we were off into town again, passing the artists in Jackson Square and there was definitely a Mardi Gras atmosphere around, with many private parties going on on the balconies, where we could increase our bead collection.
As the ship was leaving early afternoon, all too soon, we had to return to our ship, passing the Mississippi steam boat, the end of a wonderful two days in New Orleans. Definitely a place worthy of a second visit, perhaps when it is a little warmer though. At 4.30pm the ship left its birth to travel the 100 miles back down the Mississippi River to the sea, before heading to our next destination Key West.
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