One of our missions for today was to try and actually find the French Market (see A Constant Race Against The Rain), but first we had booked to go for a Mississippi cruise on Natchez Steamboat. The boat was actually called The City of New Orleans, so Im not sure what has happened there? Also I didnt see a lot of steam, not that it matters, but our Steamboat Natchez cruise was on the diesel ship City of New Orleans. Ill just call it a boat as that is at least accurate. Like I say, none of that matters.
A warning for anyone who has booked the boat online, you will need to get your online receipt changed for actual tickets otherwise you will need to queue all over again - not that we would do such a silly thing, obviously. And that queue was extremely hot as, just our luck, we ended up standing just at the point that was not sheltered from the sun (suddenly yesterdays rain seemed really quite inviting).
There was the obligatory event photo before we boarded, so well look forward to not buying one of those later.
with the or outside with the view. Given how hot we were, we opted for the inside and at least we can take it in turns to go outside when we want to. That turned out to be the right decision as that is where the jazz band was. It was actually very relaxing, listening to the live jazz in the cool whilst going up and down the Mississippi River for a couple of hours.
There was a distraction though. Back home in England it was the final of the Womens European Football. Whilst there was, understandably I suppose, no coverage in the US, we were getting a on the group chat with my work colleagues. England won in extra time against Germany by the way - a football relationship which has an awful lot of history. A fantastic result and a real example to the mens football where (for anyone who is not English) the result was in 1966 and also against Germany. Go Lionesses.
We debated asking the jazz band to play Three Lions, however the chances of them knowing what that is were very remote. Sweet Caroline maybe?
The jazz stopped for a while for New Orleans is known as the Crescent City, due to the shape of the river. Half of it is six feet below sea level and the remainder is only three feet above. There are 1,200 miles of levees (walls) to protect the city. It does make you wonder why that location was chosen given how long the Mississippi River is (something to later)? The Mississippi is the third largest river in the world according to the land area drained.
After the cruise, we went for a walk to see the sculptures in the Woldenburg Riverfront Park (which we could see from the boat is raised on stilts above the river) and then we ended up at the Riverwalk Outlet Shopping. We stopped at the Caf du Monde for their famous coffee and beignets, which are pastries. It is not the original Caf du Monde, which is near the place that isnt the French Market and we remembered had a huge queue, but we dont expect that matters.
All these things not mattering obviously means were already getting the chilled New Orleans vibe. They are very chilled,
except when they are behind the wheel of a car. We have seen quite a few arguments and the use of horns would rival New York. They are quite patient when trying to cross Bourbon Street at night though as that can take a long time.
We then headed to the French Market and eventually, success, we found it, although it wasnt easy. We spent some time browsing and noticed that everything we had purchased yesterday was actually more expensive in the market, so it all worked out from the best then.
The other thing that we missed yesterday, due to the rain, was the Louis Armstrong Park so we headed there. It was starting to look like we might not go again, this time due to the heat, but we were determined and we knew that it would only be a short walk to the cool of the hotel afterwards.
