Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: United States

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 26 (Pelham Hotel in New Orleans)

    2022 US Trip – Day 26 (Pelham Hotel in New Orleans)

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    Other than for the airport hotel of the previous evening, I was only staying in New Orleans for the one evening so I didn’t want to traipse too far from the city centre, although the prices for hotels were getting a little expensive so what I wanted and what I was going to get didn’t necessarily collide. Fortunately, there was the compromise of a boutique hotel which seemed entirely acceptable with the limitation that the room didn’t have any windows. I can work with that though, it was well reviewed and seemed reasonable.

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    The high ceilings ensured that the room didn’t feel claustrophobic with the lack of windows and I was able to get the temperature down to a suitably chilled level. It felt more snug and cosy than in one of the Easy Hotel operations where they’ve put guests in a cupboard, although this was as bright as I could get the room as it wasn’t bestowed with an exotic array of lights. I’m not suggesting that they need to put spotlights pointing towards the bed, but preparing a coffee was mostly a procedure completed in the dark.

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    Plenty of hotels offer coffee pods to use in their machines, although I can’t recall having a tea pod before. I think I must have lived a sheltered life or something like that.

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    There were some decadent soaps and a sign noting that if any guest were to pinch them, or take them home to enjoy as hotels say, there was quite a price tag to them. I’m not an interior designer, but the hotel felt to me as if some considerable care, thought and indeed competence had been put into the design. I think they’re quite proud of what they’ve done and I’d say that was entirely reasonable.

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    I’m not sure that I really understood the artwork, but it didn’t fill me with joy and delight. Perhaps I was being too excitable when praising the internal decor, this felt like flames engulfing a child. I accept that New Orleans does things very differently, but that’s excessive even for the voodoo capital of Louisiana. The hotel doesn’t offer breakfast, but there is a neighbouring outlet of the popular Ruby Slipper Cafe and there’s some tie-in available to ensure that guests can get a table. It all looked a bit expensive to me, but it’s a convenient option for guests.

    The reviews for the hotel are generally positive, but I noted this one from a few weeks ago:

    “The Desk Clerk does not secure the guest’s car keys at the front desk. I checked-in and handed my car keys to her for valet and went to my room. The desk clerk left my car keys unsupervised and on her desk. She left her desk and when she returned, the keys and the car were gone. Desk clerk did not call the police but did notify hotel security once I dialed 911 to report the car stolen. I had to ask for the valet charge to be removed and I still had to pay for my one night stay. Never Again.”

    The element I felt most notable was the “I had to ask for the valet charge to be removed” which seems entirely reasonable since they managed to lose the entire car. I’m suspecting a problem with the valet arrangement given this review:

    “Not only was the stay not well which I reviewed previously but I have now received a speeding ticket of $160 from one the cameras in town and a toll charge of $25 mailed to my house. The date and time of the ticket was when vallet from Pelham Hotel had possession of my car. I’ve attempted to reach out a few times but due to the recent hurricane still no responses back by phone or email. Words of advice is if you decide to stay there, park your own vehicle because their employees are not responsible!”

    Anyway, I digress as I frequently do when reading on-line reviews. I found the hotel staff to be friendly and helpful, with no noise issues internally or externally although there seemed to be constant shrills of delight from ladies drinking cocktails when I walked through reception. This hotel forgot to cancel my deposit left by card and so I had to wait for it to fall off my card statement a month later, but to be fair I didn’t bother contacting them and just patiently waited. That was the only negative that I could really say about the hotel, I left in the morning being entirely satisfied with my choice of accommodation and it meant that I could walk to the Amtrak station for the next part of the journey.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 26 (Bourbon Street Drinkery in New Orleans)

    2022 US Trip – Day 26 (Bourbon Street Drinkery in New Orleans)

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    Excuse the lack of an outside photo, but for reasons relating to my last post there was no way that I was getting my phone out in the busy street. This bar is known for its craft beer and its live music, although it was the former that was tempting me having seen their Untappd options. It was busier when I entered, but I was served immediately and managed to order despite the music being louder than in venues that I’d usually visit. But it’s Bourbon Street, it would seem excessive to complain about noise on one of the country’s most infamous streets.

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    Their live beer list is on Untappd, but this was the selection when I was there and I can see that I took this photo just after tagging in a beer as my image (that I keep meaning to change) is visible on the bottom left.

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    And so onto the beer, which I think was $9, or at least I just gave the barman $10 and left it at that, so it wasn’t the cheapest drink from my US travels. However, it was a glorious beer, the Peanut Butter Korova Milk Porter from Gnarly Barley Brewing. Peanut butter in a milk porter is one of my favourite things and it was also infused with some chocolate flavours, being rich and decadent. I savoured this one for some time and it was a calm place to just people watch with that glorious knowledge that I didn’t need to be anywhere and I was in no hurry.

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    There’s the live music to my right and I understand that they not just have live music every evening, but also throughout the afternoon and early evening on a daily basis. That’s some commitment to music and it did add somewhat to the atmosphere, although it was a tough crowd and there wasn’t much applause or indeed interest in the performers. I imagine though that when live music is the normality in a venue that you forget to stop and applaud after every track, but it all felt quite authentic New Orleans. They’re proud of their toilets here, not something I know by visiting them, but because they frequently mention them in their response to on-line reviews. There’s something to be said for a busy bar in New Orleans focusing on their toilets. It’s absolutely right that they do, but it tells me something positive about the venue that they feel the need to highlight their pride in them. But that’s evident, if you pride yourself in the state of your toilets, on the cleanliness of the bar and the variety of live music, then such things as the beer selection and customer service are going to flow in the same direction and tide of excellence.

    Not necessarily cheap but they weren’t applying any cover charge to be fair and I was only ever having one drink before heading to my hotel and it was a delightful beer, so I left content and pleased with my choice of bar. For what could be quite a tourist trap they seem to be managing a slick operation and making efforts to have some decent beers. This must be a tough gig to manage given the size of the venue, the number of customers and the seemingly quite complex variety of drinks available, whilst keeping very high reviews on Google. I was impressed, it’s worth the money and this is how I like to think of New Orleans, as opposed to the rather negative things that are happening all around outside of this bar.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 26 (Crime and Disorder in New Orleans)

    2022 US Trip – Day 26 (Crime and Disorder in New Orleans)

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    In an attempt to actually finish the blog of this US trip at some point this year, I’ve limited myself to how many posts I can make about the National WWII Museum and have forced myself to leave it with the riveting text I’ve already written. The museum was a tour de force of US military involvement in the Second World War and an important tourist attraction for the city.

    I’ve visited New Orleans a few times before and it has been one of my favourite cities, but things felt very different in October 2022. The city is verging on lawless and although that’s something of a sensationalist line, I’m not sure how else to define a location which has become the US murder capital in such a short space of time. I saw a robbery in progress when I was there and fortunately sort of managed to get out of the way in my own style, but the city had a harsh edge that I hadn’t noticed on my previous visits. Reading the local newspaper today, they’re reporting that the city is suffering from “wanton violent crime” following yesterday’s carjacking and shooting of a cyclist.

    These crimes aren’t rare, New Orleans police reported that in 2022 there were 218 carjackings, 343 shootings and 397 armed robberies. Inevitably much of this falls outside of the tourist area which the police will be desperate to keep safe to protect the hospitality industry, but crime is now embedded there too.

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    The city is desperately trying to recruit more police officers as they’re operating at little over half capacity and they’re making more funding available to tackle this crime-wave, but it will likely take some time to turn this chaos around. The Wall Street Journal reported a few months ago that there is a crisis as some business owners and residents are leaving the city and the average 911 police emergency response time is 2.5 hours.

    If anyone were to ask me if they should visit New Orleans, I’d personally suggest that they remove it from their itinerary until the police can get back control at least of the central tourist area. Local tourist authorities are claiming that the city remains safe, that there is safety in numbers in the central core and that rumours of a crime-wave are exaggerated. I’d suggest that the crime map at https://nola.gov/nopd/data/ tells a different story as that shows crimes for just the last four weeks and there are murders, rapes, armed robberies and the like all in the tourist centre. It’s really not ideal and the Mayor of New Orleans has this week declared the crime situation as “a public health crisis”.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 26 (The National WWII Museum in New Orleans – Glass Bottles from Nagasaki)

    2022 US Trip – Day 26 (The National WWII Museum in New Orleans – Glass Bottles from Nagasaki)

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    These two glass bottles are on display at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans and the museum exhibit notes:

    “Eighteen-year old William A Stover, a pharmacist mate aboard LST 585, went ashore at Nagasaki on October 26 1945. Among the ruins, Stover collected these two bottles. In a letter home to his father, Stover recounted his experience: “Yesterday I went ashore in Nagasaki. A bunch of us went up to the ruins to hunt for souvenirs. I’m sending a few pieces home that I picked up. There were some skeletons around, but when you touched them they just crumbled to ashes”.

    Stover’s visit was over two months from when Nagasaki had suffered from a nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on 9 August 1945. The above photo are from the US National Archives showing the city before and after the bombing and it’s hard to think what the 18-year old Stover would have thought about what he saw.

    Back to the glasses, the writing on them is from before the attack and despite the nuclear bomb, the bottles were twisted out of shape but didn’t break or lose their paper labels. The museum gives more information about Stover, although that’s more because they want to charge for usage of imagery ($20 to have the image saved only locally on a private computer, much more to use anywhere else), but that’s better than their usual efforts. They add:

    “William Ammon Stover was born on 15 March 1926 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He joined the United States Navy Reserves in April 1943 and graduated from the Navy Hospital Corps School Norfolk Navy Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia in September 1943. Stover served aboard LST 585 in the PTO as a Pharmacist’s Mate, Second Class. Stover left LST 585 on 2 November 1945 and was transferred to a fleet pool in Okinawa and then served on USS LSM 273. He was discharged on 2 March 1946 at the Sampson Naval Separation Center on Lake Seneca, New York. During his service he took part in the Lingayen Campaign, Tarakan Island, Dutch Borneo as well as the landings on Bataan Island and Corregidor Island. In 1948 he married Carolyn Margaret Russell. After the Navy, Stover attended Bucknell University and worked as a technical illustrator, writer, and editor. He spent ten years with Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, three years with GE in Syracuse and Oklahoma City, and six years with Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas. He later owned, operated, and retired from a Kwik-Kopy printing company.”

    I mention all this as it must have been something of a culture shock to come back from such an experience in Japan to try and settle back into what might be called a normal life.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Foot Soldiers Sculpture)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Foot Soldiers Sculpture)

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    This is a powerful sculpture located at Kelly Ingram Park (named after the first US sailor killed during the First World War) and was designed by Ronald McDowell. What is represents though is quite complex and has been featured in many news stories over recent decades.

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    Not readable here, but written on the sculpture is:

    “This sculpture is dedicated to the foot soldiers of the Birmingham Civil Rights movement. With gallantry, courage, and great bravery they faced the violence of attack dogs, high powered water hoses and bombings. They were the fodder in the advance against injustice”.

    The back story of this sculpture can be read here as this sculpture is based on photos taken at the time which I think are still in copyright so I’d better not put them here. Bull Connor, the city’s Public Safety Commissioner, ordered the police to use dogs during civil rights protests in Birmingham and the photos taken started to change perceptions in the rest of the United States about what was happening in states such as Alabama.

    The story is more complex than this as explained here, where by chance the 15 year old person immortalised in the sculpture, Walter Gadsden, wasn’t really part of the civil rights movement and was just a bystander. But that doesn’t make much difference to the telling of the story as a whole, Connor’s treatment of protesters was appalling and he would merrily authorise the use of water hoses, dogs or threat of arrest to stop the civil rights movement.

    Much was made of the photos though at the time, they were covered in newspapers and politicians comments on them. The policeman Dick Middleton and his dog Leo became part of the story, although accounts of this particular officer (and there were many from journalists) is that he was a polite and respectful member of the service, not something that could be said about some of his colleagues who were very much supportive of Connor’s tactics and political thoughts on maintaining segregation. Middleton died in 2015, he had remained in the area and after 30 years in the police service he had become involved in owning the Klingler’s European Bakery in the city.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Heaviest Corner on Earth)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Heaviest Corner on Earth)

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    Look at my advanced photography skills here with my finger over the lens….. Unfortunately I didn’t feel entirely at ease in this part of the city, so I was protecting my phone to ensure it wasn’t taken, although I hadn’t intended to impact on the photo in this way.

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    This information sign tells the story of how this corner of Birmingham got the name of being the ‘heaviest corner on earth’, but essentially it was because at the beginning of the twentieth century four skyscrapers were built on the each of the four corners of this junction. They were different times, ones of optimism as the city was fast growing with what looked like a promising and wealthy future.

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    Although there are of course taller buildings in the city now, this remains one of the most built-up parts of Birmingham and not much has really changed here. The four buildings were listed as part of an historic district in July 1985, although this part of the city spoke to me of being from another age not just in terms of architecture and design, but also in terms of how people thought Birmingham would evolve.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Pies and Pints and My Walking Out)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Pies and Pints and My Walking Out)

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    I don’t have any photos of this venue, but here’s some street art of the great John Lewis.

    This was my first walkout of any venue in the United States in all my trips to the country over the last decade, or at least the first one that I can remember. Service in the US is nearly always impeccable, with anything going wrong nearly always promptly resolved. With a couple of hours before my train departed, I thought I’d try this venue although something didn’t feel quite right from some of the reviews. It is though part of a small chain and offers two of my favourite things, namely pizza and craft beer, so I persisted.

    I had a short wait to be welcomed as the team member was greeting other customers, but she clearly didn’t want to be there and there was a minimal greeting offered. I have no idea why and I can’t judge as someone might have very challenging private issues that they’re dealing with, but I can’t say she was particularly personable at that moment. But she walked me to a table away from most of the other customers, which felt slightly odd and I did wonder whether she didn’t like single diners for some reason relating to tipping or something, but I’m long since unbothered by trying to second guess these things.

    Anyway, when we arrived at the table it was dirty and she threw the menu on it whilst adding nothing more. I didn’t bother sitting down and walked out trying to attract as little attention as possible whilst doing so, hopefully with no-one noticing.

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    I instead went to Publix and got a Caesar salad ready for my train trip later that afternoon, I needed some sustenance given that it was the longest train journey I had ever taken at over 24 hours non-stop.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Good People Brewing Company)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Good People Brewing Company)

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    After a busy morning at the Birmingham Museum of Art, it was most definitely time for a beer. The Good People Brewing Company have large premises, including this substantial external beer garden.

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    The brewery is located opposite Regions Field, the home of the Birmingham Barons baseball team. This area of the city felt very different from the downtown area that I had spent the morning in, although it’s a short walk away. Money has been spent here and it seemed to have a rejuvenated feel to it, it was the only part of the city that I visited where I got this impression.

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    That looked suitably tempting. Also, I was delighted to see they not only had hangers at the bar (that’s one of my signs of an excellent pub) but also power points which was very useful as my phone battery was depleted after taking something like 386 photos at the gallery. Of which I’ve used about ten, but there we go….

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    The welcome was timely and seemed genuine, it was an inviting and comfortable atmosphere so I lingered here for quite a while. Actually, I thought the ambience was vibrant, which is sometimes my codeword for hinting that it felt like Fight Club, but here it did seem that customers were just excited to be at the venue and none were disruptive or annoying.

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    They were happy to do a flight of five various beer options, my favourites here were the Pineapple Tart sour and the Cherry & Almond sour. The brewery is known locally for its IPAs and they have a strong focus on those, as well as plenty of sour options as well.

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    And I ended the visit off with the brewery’s Coffee Oatmeal Stout which was very acceptable. The venue has Hotbox outside who offer street food most of the week, although on Mondays and Tuesdays there are rotating food trucks servicing the needs of drinkers. This was the only bar that I went to in Alabama, as although there were some tempting breweries and bars in Birmingham they were nearly all out of the centre and I didn’t have time to walk there. But, I certainly could have picked worse and it was a rather convivial afternoon.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art)

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    I’m determined to get to the end of blogging this US trip and so I will have to content myself to posting about just four artworks that I was particularly engaged with at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. These are pieces by:

    Lorenzo Veneziano

    Canaletto

    Titus Kaphar

    Pieter Neeffs the Younger

    The above photo is of the sculpture garden area of the museum, located at the rear, that the friendly person at security told me not to miss. And she offered a lovely welcome, kindly putting my backpack by her desk so that my life on the move wasn’t stolen, as well as giving me an explanation of the gallery’s holdings. The welcome was personable and it felt like the gallery was just well managed.

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    The rest of my visit was as positive as the start of it, with everything well signed and easy to find, although I had been given a free map anyway. There was also no charge to access the gallery (and there never has been since they opened) although I was disappointed that it wasn’t a little busier given how strong many of the collections are. Everything worked in the gallery, whether that was the wi-fi or the on-line information that they have about their exhibits.

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    The gallery was open and bright, with plenty of seating for when visitors were just a little tired. Although the gallery has got that covered, their web-site notes:

    “If you get a bad case of museum fatigue and want to sit down, no worries, you can still explore the BMA’s artworks on the smartguide by using the index”.

    Whoever has written the gallery’s web-site has impressive communications skills, this place exudes a welcoming vibe. Even their section on photos, which is sometimes a barrage of things that can’t be done, has been crafted to show just how much they encourage photos and engagement.

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    This is very much a museum that really needs more than one visit, the collections are too substantial to properly do them justice in just one day. I lingered mostly on the paintings, but there were also collections on pottery (the museum has an extensive array of Wedgwood pieces), pre-Colombian art, Native American art, Asian art, African art and many more.

    The museum was opened in 1959, which feels relatively late for a nationally important institution, although it had origins from early clubs and exhibitions. Birmingham as a city has had some difficult decades, so it is perhaps fortunate that this institution was established in the growth years when more things perhaps felt possible. However, it seems to have been well financed by the city and they were able to open a new building in 1993, which is the one where they’re located now.

    The reviews for the museum are nearly all impeccable, although I noticed a couple from people who have got muddled up with Birmingham in the UK and left comments for the wrong place. And a few angry people were furious that the gallery had a policy on masks, a typical no-win situation for them. But amongst those annoyed visitors, there are tens of thousands of glowing positives for the work of the staff.

    I came here as the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s web-site said they couldn’t deal with my bag and although I was disappointed not be able to see their collections as I was deliberately in the city to learn more about the history of the civil rights movement in Alabama, this replacement museum certainly didn’t disappoint in any way. A huge bundle of joy in the centre of Birmingham.

  • 2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Pieter Neeffs the Younger)

    2022 US Trip – Day 28 (Birmingham Alabama – Birmingham Museum of Art and Artwork by Pieter Neeffs the Younger)

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    I’ll have to be careful not to spend several weeks writing about artworks at the Birmingham Museum of Art, but this was another of my favourites from their collections. It’s of Antwerp Cathedral and was painted by Pieter Neeffs the Younger (1620-1675/1685) in 1648. The panel by the painting at the gallery notes the tall painted altarpieces along the columns of the central nave and they look really rather glorious, it’s a shame that changes in taste and the Reformation movement saw much of this swept away. I’ve never been to Antwerp, but the panel also notes that some of these survive to this day, but some were lost as religious doctrine evolved.

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    It’s the clarity of the painting that I like, there’s plenty to see when looking closely so there’s plenty of human interest. It’s also a reminder of the time before churches and cathedrals often cluttered up their naves with seating, something only recently being reversed in many religious buildings. Not quite visible in this bottom photo, but visible in the main image, but I like the gravedigger busy making preparations to what I assume is adding a body to a tomb. This isn’t the only painting that the artist made of the cathedral as I’ve seen others, but as he was a local it would have provided him with plenty of inspiration.

    The painting was purchased with the help of the Art Fund and donations from Mr and Mrs William T Ratliff. There’s more about the artwork at https://www.artsbma.org/collection/interior-of-antwerp-cathedral/.