Today we indulged Kevin’s passion for railway lines, or in this particular case streetcar lines. He has reports here and here. But I managed to twist some of day my way too.
The St. Charles line takes you through some beautiful parts of New Orleans. There were so any lovely old houses that I took video on the way back. It will take me a while to process it, but hopefully it will be good.
The downside of riding the streetcars is that the wooden seats are murder on your butt, so I insisted on a walk half way through. But I had ulterior motives. After a brief diversion we ended up in Magazine Street, which the guide book says has 6 miles of shopping. We didn’t do anywhere near the full length, but everything we saw was small, privately-run shops. It wasn’t all tourist tat either. I saw one place selling Vera Wang dresses. But the main reason for the detour was to visit Blue Frog Chocolates. We decided not to buy a chocolate voodoo doll, because it was not diabetic-friendly and I’m not a big fan of dark chocolate. However, we have samples, including the signature blue chocolate frog, and will report back.
Lunch at Mother’s was every bit as good as we have been led to expect. We ate jambalaya and red beans and rice. Yum.
Wooden seats?!?!
And here I thought the Green Line was an antique. I stand corrected.
Kevin bought a book on the streetcars today. Looks like they are around 100 years old. Actually they are in remarkably good condition, all things considered, but they are still murder on the butt.
The New Orleans Streetcars are rolling national historical monuments, like the cable cars in San Francisco (which likewise have uncomfortable wooden seats). Even the replica cars built new for expanded service on the rebuilt streetcar routes in New Orleans hold to the old-fashioned pattern. See the Wikipedia article for a bit more. Googling for “New Orleans streetcars” ought to turn up photos and more details if you’re interested.