Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Savannah, GA. No we did not take the midnight train, we drove up the coast from the Sunshine State and arrived outside our Historic Inn about 6pm in the evening. Just in time to have missed out on all the good parking spots and having to drive up to the multi-storey car park. Although this wasn't so bad seeing as we were given a suggestion to park on the roof where the views were truly amazing from.

The Inn cost us quite a few dollars for the night but it was well worth it. The decor was incredible, we felt as if we had been taken back in time to the 19th Century when the Deep South was still in its glory and Scarlett O'Hara was flouncing around in her giant dresses with young men bringing her all her heart's desires. (Please note this was not exclusive to Savannah, wait til we get to Charleston!)

Our room on the third floor comprised two humonguous four-poster beds (high enough to provide vertigo to the bravest of travellers), gorgeous high ceilings, wooden furniture, old-style sofas and dressing gowns. And complimentary bottles of water (these were NOT free in DC, $4 I tell you! $4!!!!)

We spent the evening exploring the riverside of Savannah. The atmosphere was very deep south, weather was warm and there were street performers, musicians etc very relaxed ambiance and generally lovely. We started off at the Savannah Candy Kitchen

Oh my god we had died and gone to heaven - it's basically a huge sweet shop where they make taffy and praline and chocolates in the premises. The smell was heavenly - we both bought big bags of flavoured taffy, straight from the conveyor. Yum! Obviously we didn't want to spoil our appetites so we only had one... or two... to taste.

For dinner, since we were in the South, we wanted something local. I was considering for a while having grits but I wasn't quite brave enough. The riverside restaurant we chose looked pretty basic from the outside and the portions looked like nothing special when they arrived but they tasted so good! I had linguine with grouper in breadcrumbs and creamy sauce and I can still taste the lovely flavour. We don't get grouper in England much unless we pay ourselves silly so I was brave and had this whole new kind of fish and I didn't regret it.

We couldn't find much nightlife in Savannah but that was probably because we were at the opposite end of town to all the bars and only hung around at the riverside, so we had an early night in our gorgeous beds. It was here that I discovered the Gameshow Network. Oh dear, I could spend a long time watching that!

In order to make the most of the town we got up early, planning to take part in a carriage tour around the town. Unfortunately though, the carriages were booked by a large tourist group so we couldn't have a tour. Instead we walked around the various squares and MAN was it quiet. Admittedly this was Sunday in Georgia so the world and his wife were in church, but we didn't really find much to entertain us in Savannah. So we headed off to Charleston, not so much disappointed with Savannah but perhaps hoping that there had been more to see. A tour would perhaps have provided us with this - goddamn tourist groups!