Exploring Savannah Georgia - The Charming Southern CityWe are exploring Savannah Georgia. My son Eckhardt, his girlfriend Susan, and I are having a great cappuccino on Jackson square! 
Savannah was ranked first as a cotton seaport on the Atlantic. The old Savannah Cotton Exchange building was completed in 1887 - and this is where cotton prices were set in the old days. Over 2 million bales of cotton per year moved through Savannah at that time.A little later we decide to take the popular Trolley Tour, as this is the easiest way of exploring Savannah Georgia top spots. We bought a ticket for the Hop-on-hop-off trolley, where we were sitting for a while under the most beautiful trees, waiting for the bus to fill up. We were travelling next to the Savannah river - at its widest, 400 feet across. Now it is rated as the fourth largest port in America and the second busiest on the Atlantic. A fascinating fact is that many many years ago, stones were added to the cotton ships to make them heavier, and afterwards they were used to build the roads. These stones can still be found on the roads today!! The streets are lined with huge, old Spanish Moss trees. On this Sunday, there is a beautiful relaxed atmosphere in the air .....Montgomery Road, Oglethorpe Avenue, Martin Luther King Boulevard, Lincoln Avenue, Jefferson Street and Liberty Road ........we were passing them all..... until we came to Franklin square - the first African American church is here, purchased for 1 500 dollar. 
In 1766 the first slave ships arrived here from Africa. I saw the movie “Amazing Grace” a few weeks before, and this history of the slaves became very real to me - I remembered some scenes from the movie...On and on we went with the trolley, exploring Savannah Georgia... We passed the famous Eugene Talmadge Bridge, which cost 70 million dollars to complete. This bridge reaches from Georgia to South Carolina. It was struck 3 times by passing container ships and some years ago had to be rebuilt. Apparantly the Savannah port can accommodate 98% of the world's container ships. In 1912 the famous Girls Scouts movement started here. Juliette Gordon Low was the founder, she was born on Halloween night, and more than 250 000 girls visit this building every year. We were passing under some huge Oak trees (The Oak tree is the State tree of Georgia), and passed one of them that was 258 years old - the largest oak tree in the South!! 
The famous Spanish Moss tree was used to stuff the seats of the first Model T – Ford built by Henry Ford. I took quite a few pictures of these beautiful trees....
TWO O' CLOCK - LunchLunch is a Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich, with avocado, ham, lettuce and tomato with an ice -cold Pepsi at the Panera Bread Restaurant, on the corner of Broughton and Bull Road (just off on the no 7 trolley stop) ...........how beautiful old historical Savannah is !!!!After that, a walk across the street takes us to the Paris Market and Brocante, a VERY cute French shop with coffee and patisserie, my favourite!! We browse around under the fabulous crystal chandeliers and smell the most beautiful scented candles!! 
Everywhere in Savannah is the delicious sweet smell of the wild jasmine shrub.It is a most beautiful antique tree city, with very big, gigantic oak trees lining most of the streets on both sides ... DININGOn Sunday evening while exploring Savannah Georgia we went for an unforgettable meal at Elizabeth on 37th (The Queen of New Southern Cooking) Savannah's most famous restaurant since it opened in 1981.Here, there are more than 25 000 wines available and one of the owners, Gary Butch, personally serves us!!! We started chatting to him, and he gave us some of the fascinating history of this establishment, but quickly the restaurant filled up and we were sipping a delicious glass of wine.... I order a favourite Tuscan red wine from Montalcino, and to my amazement, they have it! 
The executive chef, Elizabeth Terry, was voted as the best chef in the southeast in 1995...I had the pork, with sweet potato and a delicious pecan nut tart with ice cream!! We had a delicious meal here, on our last night, and after some really good, strong espresso's we returned to our Inn... On Monday morning we returned to Atlanta (a four hour drive by car) to prepare for my son's forthcoming graduation event at Oglethorpe University, on Saturday 10 May. As we were leaving the old historical city of Savannah, Georgia and traveling North, I thought. I will always remember her as one of the very special places I visited while exploring Savannah Georgia. Return from Exploring Savannah Georgia to Home Page |
