Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Iberville Suites, New Orleans After a so-so breakfast, we checked out and drove to a post office to post a box of stuff that we had slowly amassed on our trip. We asked for the cheapest, slowest way to Australia, like a one legged camel in a rowboat - turns out the cheapest option is $278!! Needless to say we chose to not send it! The postal worker said we could try UPS or FedEx but she thinks the price would still be in the same ball park. with less than 3 weeks of excess stuff so far, how much will it cost us in postage after 3 months! With a slight worry pushed deep to the back of my mind, we headed for New Orleans.
After driving past an old-school McDonalds in the morning, we ended up stopping in the town of Port Arthur for lunch. We decided to try Luby's for lunch - wow! I never thought cafeteria food could be so expensive! As nice as the vegetables were, I have no idea how they manage to stay in business as we would never eat there again! Imagine the worst Sizzler Restaurant you could - and then make it worse!
Back on the road again, we crossed the state border into Louisiana and noticed the change immediately. Getting out of the car at the visitor centre, we couldn't help but notice the humidity as my glasses fogged up to the point where I couldn't see a thing! It's a good thing I took them off before I walked into the lake nearby!
It was amazing to see that as soon as you cross the border, the geography changed into bayou country with long straight bridges driving over swamplands - they have so many bridges here that there is even a place called Bridge City! We saw a weird truck towing 2 other trucks - at first we thought it was coming straight for us...
If I was to give any advice to people driving into New Orleans I would say that if you hotel is near the French Quarter, don't try to get there at night! With streets closed to cars to allow room for tourists to walk, it is not easy navigating through the city. After avoiding all the road closures, we finally made it to our hotel and oh my goodness, Clare has outdone herself this time! When she booked us into the Iberville Suites online before we left Australia, it seemed to be just like any other hotel. The thing the website doesn't mention is that the Iberville Suites is part of THE Ritz-Carlton!! I don't think I have stayed in such luxury before! It is very swish :)
We headed out to explore and it turns out we are one street away from Bourbon Street! It was a good thing that the streets were closed to traffic as it allows the drunk tourists to spill out onto the street, which they most definitely did. While the architecture was pretty much exactly as I imagined it, the atmosphere caught me by surprise. We only found one jazz/blues sounding place as all the pubs/clubs play contemporary music - Clare likened Bourbon Street to Northbridge. The only thing I would add to that is that there are a lot more adult stores and "gentlemen's clubs" - seemed liked there were half naked women covered in body paint everywhere! We did however see a jazz parade (outside a FootLocker) and a couple of dancing police horses!
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