u.s.a: savannah
savannah was founded in 1733 and has a long and interesting history. but the thing i liked the most about it was that it was just a really really pretty city. no huge commercial billboards, no sprawling shopping malls or cold concrete mega-apartments, just a beautiful, pleasant city.
so this blog is going to be more pictures, less history lesson. we walked around for a day and couldn't be happier. every house, without fail, was pretty. (maybe there is a law? 'ordinance 5.843 - no landowner shall proceed to erect a visually displeasing structure') every square was covered with a nice little garden. every street was leafy. occasionally a tourist like the specimen below (uncle dave) and us would ramble by...
every so often we would come into a little open space with a delightful park planted in the middle. this is a (brilliant) feature of savannah - there are 22 parks dotted about the city like chocolate chips in a particularly delicious cookie. every time you come upon one you just sigh with pleasure.
by and by we came to 'river street' which i will hazard a guess was named as it runs along the river. it is lined with pleasant looking old warehouses.
i particularly liked the old savannah cotton exchange that was built in 1886 and shows how much savannah depended on cotton for its wealth (sorry bit of history popped out).
i just have to mention this little art shop on river street that was better stocked than many an art gallery we have seen. it was packed - wall to wall, ceiling to floor with original artwork. this picture shows probably a quarter of the shop.
i leave you with the oldest building in savannah (possibly - they seem to be quite relaxed when it comes to historical accuracy, claiming to be 'associated' of r. l. stevenson's 'treasure island'), the pirate house. it started out as a botanical garden and then became the gardeners house was built in 1734 and eventually developed into a tavern, where you were just as likely as to get drunk as to be knocked unconscious and carried out through their underground tunnel, waking up as a slave on a pirate ship.
actually thats a pretty boring picture. so instead i will leave you with this mature and well-behaved couple doing what mature and well-behaved couples do when browsing classy shops in downtown savannah.
so this blog is going to be more pictures, less history lesson. we walked around for a day and couldn't be happier. every house, without fail, was pretty. (maybe there is a law? 'ordinance 5.843 - no landowner shall proceed to erect a visually displeasing structure') every square was covered with a nice little garden. every street was leafy. occasionally a tourist like the specimen below (uncle dave) and us would ramble by...
every so often we would come into a little open space with a delightful park planted in the middle. this is a (brilliant) feature of savannah - there are 22 parks dotted about the city like chocolate chips in a particularly delicious cookie. every time you come upon one you just sigh with pleasure.
by and by we came to 'river street' which i will hazard a guess was named as it runs along the river. it is lined with pleasant looking old warehouses.
i particularly liked the old savannah cotton exchange that was built in 1886 and shows how much savannah depended on cotton for its wealth (sorry bit of history popped out).
i just have to mention this little art shop on river street that was better stocked than many an art gallery we have seen. it was packed - wall to wall, ceiling to floor with original artwork. this picture shows probably a quarter of the shop.
i leave you with the oldest building in savannah (possibly - they seem to be quite relaxed when it comes to historical accuracy, claiming to be 'associated' of r. l. stevenson's 'treasure island'), the pirate house. it started out as a botanical garden and then became the gardeners house was built in 1734 and eventually developed into a tavern, where you were just as likely as to get drunk as to be knocked unconscious and carried out through their underground tunnel, waking up as a slave on a pirate ship.
actually thats a pretty boring picture. so instead i will leave you with this mature and well-behaved couple doing what mature and well-behaved couples do when browsing classy shops in downtown savannah.
