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Day 1 - Let's go exploring

 Considering we travelled all day yesterday we woke up pretty well after a good night's sleep. I woke at 6am and Anne just a little later after me.

We were not waiting around for the breakfast that was included in the B and B accommodation as we were not expecting a huge choice so we got dressed and headed out to find a local place closeby.

Only a few blocks away was WAKIN' BAKIN!

This turned out to be a great little spot for breakfast and we chose the pancakes and bacon and eggs (all combined into one meal) and I got a cappuccino and Anne got filtered coffee. We had heard that American's don't do coffee well and yes..the cappuccino was awful. 

We shared the pancakes, eggs and bacon and that was an assault on the taste buds! Sweet and savoury all at once - delicious but overwhelming. 

After that it was a search for a SIM CARD - and I can tell you that there are none to be found in the French Quarter of town. 

The closest was another 30 minute walk from where we were and it was getting rather steamy at 30 degrees C so we thought we'd just have a look around some shops instead and try tomorrow.

Today is Sunday and there is a huge football game on in the city and everyone was gearing up to either watch or go to the local stadium.

Anne decided that she was keen on a cookery class and finally convinced me to go to.

I know that it meant that we sat in air conditioning - so what could go wrong.


This turned out to be a hoot with the lovely Harriet being our demonstrator and a wealth of local knowledge and a gorgeous soul.

She looked gumbo, jambalaya, pecan pralines and a white chocolate bread pudding which was topped with rum sauce. These were traditional recipes from her mother and grandmother and she was proud to share all of her cooking secrets.


I loved the experience even though I didn't think it was something I'd really enjoy - it's always worth giving something new a try. I used to work as a cookery demonstrator over 40 years ago and the whole thing gave me a little PTSD as it was my first ever job and I was a shy little flower and scared to death or speaking in public.

It took us a good 40 minutes to walk back to our rooms and it was a wonderful opportunity to hide from the midday heat, recoup and get ready for the afternoon and evening of walking around.

After a few hours out of the heat of the day we went back outside to take in Burbon Street at night.

Such an experience! Loads of people out, so much loud music, people drinking out on the street, people smoking weed, and a few very poor people plus one very drunk or drugged person totally out of it on the pavement.

We enjoyed all the shops with a Halloween theme, some Voodoo shops which were pretty ordinary and some discounted T shirts.

We did over 12kms today - and for people who are basically stuck inside in front of a computer that about 10kms more than our daily total!!!



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