dfons

DAYS 34-35-36 I arrived to Washington DC from Chicago at about 11ish and got the shuttle bus to my hotel. I managed to get a very good rate again through bookit.com and my hotel in Washington was the Hilton by Dupont Circle. Needless to say the hotel was absolutely superb. I had a fantastic kingbed bedroom and the hotel had all the facilities you can expect from the Hilton plus it is located in a very central area of Washington DC. As a curiosity, a taxi driver told me that this was the hotel where Ronald Reagan's assessination attempt took place in 1981. Anyway, after I got to the hotel and checked in, I unpacked my stuff and got ready to go out. My mission that day was to find a bar that showed Barca's game. ... read more

DAYS 29-30 Saint Louis The next morning I got up and after grabbing some breakfast at the motel, doughnuts and orange juice, I walked to downtown. I had planned the day quite well this time, I was going to the City’s museum first, then downtown, then the Arch and finally I had a ticket for my first baseball game ever, St Louis Cardinals vs Minnesota Brewers. I caught a bus to the city’s museum and that was a mistake. Not catching a bus, the temperature in St Louis was quite high not as bad as in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi, but still in the high 80s and quite humid. The mistake was going to the City’s museum because as cool as it is, it’s basically a museum for kids. It’s got some kind of rides, funny ... read more

DAYS 24-25-26 Memphis Once in Memphis, the first thing I did was to go and visit Graceland, the house where Elvis Presley lived for a big part of his life. It is a massive complex, very commercialised with lots of shops and different exhibitions some of them not very interesting. However, the house tour is well worth the visit. The house itself is amazing due to the way in which Elvis decided to decorate the different rooms. His play room, his kitchen, his living room etc they are all still the same way they were when Elvis died. You can only visit the ground floor and not the upstairs which is a bit disappointing really. Some of the rooms in the house host exhibits with Elvis’ dresses and all his gold, silver and platinum records are ... read more

DAYS 21-22 NEW ORLEANS I woke up quite early and drove a bit less than 2 hours to reach New Orleans. The drive is very cool as you drive by the swamps and you can see how the bridges that go on for miles and miles are literally built over the wet lands. Quite an experience! I got to New Orleans with no problems and found my hotel that was located right in the middle of Bourbon st, the most famous street in NOLA and where all the action is. The hotel is called Royal Sonesta and it was really really nice. Old French style deco but with all the amenities including again, swimming pool and gym. I left my stuff in the room and went for a walk outside. I checked Bourbon st, which looked ... read more

DAY 16-17-18 TEXAS San Antonio – Bandera - Austin I arrived at San Antonio’s airport at about 10ish after a 2.40 hours flight in a very small plane, just of about 50 seats. Collected my bag and went to the Alamo rent-a-car office at the airport where they sorted out my car rental in a very speedy and efficient way. Then I got the shuttle bus from outside for a 5 minutes ride to the car depot where I could pick my car. As I had a full size car, I had 3 option, a Chevy Malibu, a Nissan Almera or a Toyota Corolla. I thought that since I was going to be driving from San Antonio all the way to Chicago, I’d need a good car, not that much for the room but for the ... read more