We lost a couple of hours flying from LA to New Orleans. This was a quick stop just to break up our flight to Miami. By the time we got to our hotel in the French Quarter it was early evening so we headed straight out to the famous Bourbon Street. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting. We thought it would be all Jazz. Instead every bar had loud banging music, each one distorting the other as we walked past. It reminded me of other party streets we have visited in various other country’s, e.g. Thailand or Cambodia. There was a little jazz interspersed which we stood and watched. It was very much the party street. We needed a beer and Ruthie was quite flattered at first when she was asked for ID to get into a bar. That soon changed when she was refused entry. We had our Australian drivers licenses with us but that wasn’t good enough, the doorman wanted passports! Apparently this is policy at a lot of the clubs. The next bar let us in. It was meant to be. A band named The Phunkey Monkeys were playing and they brought the house down. They are a famous cover band in New Orleans and were sensational! They seemed to be able to play any song requested of them. Tired as we were, it turned into a fun magical night. A Tradition started during Mardi Gras is for people to throw beads from the balconies and this was happening tonight. Ruthie caught some and it felt like everyone in town had these brightly coloured beads adorning their necks. It appears to be a fun year round thing to do now but not such a good thing for the environment . Several tons of these beads have been collected from storm water drains.

Ruthie had mapped out our walking tour for the next day. The central town was quite easy to get around and the terrain was flat. We walked along the banks of the Mississippi admiring the riverboats and reached the Hurricane Katrina memorial park. There was an awesome sculpture of a house in a tree, a stark reminder of the devastation the hurricane caused. Louis Armstrong Park was just beautiful. The sun was out, the spring blossom was appearing, the fountains were spurting and there was a striking statue of the great man glittering in the sunshine. We continued on past Tennessee Williams house, Jackson square, the French Market and considered afternoon tea at the world famous Cafe du Monde but the queues were out the door. We loved seeing the red streetcars rambling down the Main Street.

I have to tell you about our accommodation, the French Market Inn. We had no windows in our room. There were rough brick exposed walls and exposed beam ceilings but comfortable and very dark when the lights went out. The building dates back to 1722 and since then there have been hauntings reported. New Orleans of course is well renowned for ghosts, voodoo, black magic and even vampires. The cemetery tours are very popular. I wanted to name this blog “Hoodoo the Voodoo that you do” but was overruled by chief editor Ruthie.

Dinner tonight was a sampling of New Orleans signature dishes. We had Gumbo, Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya and Red Beans with Sausage, quite a gastronomic delight. Then we headed to Frenchmen Street. A jazz band entertained us over dinner. This was the place to be for authentic jazz. The places were a little bit more run down, but had so much character, the crowd a little rough around the edges and they had names like the Spotted Cat Music Club, but this was where the true jazz music was. We venue hopped taking in various jazz styles. It always amazes me how many great unknown musicians there are in the world. We had well and truly enjoyed our jazz fix. The slower paced New Orleans is a stop I would recommend to anyone.