BootsnAll Travel Network



Nashville, TN, the land of country music

September 8th

We had been looking forward to going to Nashville since our stop in Memphis at the beginning of the trip. Everyone had said that Nashville was even more “happening.” We were actually disappointed when we arrived and started looking for a hotel.  It felt like we had entered another town suffering desperately from urban sprawl (strip malls and car dealerships greeted us!) Our guidebook mentioned that the area surrounding the Grand Ole Opry was a tourist area (not usually the type of place that we want to stay- but at least it gave us an idea of where to look.) When we arrived, the area was dead and the hotels were expensive- out of our budget. We found at later that this part of Nashville was devastated by floods a year earlier and that they were still rebuilding it. Hence, why it felt like a ghost town. We finally found a hotel and decided to stay in for the evening…it had been a long day.

The following morning, we drove to “downtown,” home of the famous country music “strip”, the state capitol and several museums and concert houses.  We had planned to spend the day visiting the town and staying out for some live music. We weren’t very inspired by the sites on offer, the guide book had been very optimistic, but it felt like another classic American “downtown” that was lacking much to do. We started by visiting the interior of the State Capitol, a simple building, that was built in 1850. It retained some of its historical charm. We left the capitol and walked down towards the riverfront where we visited a reconstructed “fort” from the early days was first settled by Europeans.  We had a picnic next to a large plaza where they were setting up for a concert and were approached by a tourist looking for help with the bus routes.

After lunch, we visited the Ryman Auditorium, a historic church that was converted into concert hall. The Grand Ole Opry had its origin in this charming building (complete with stained glass windows and wooden pews.) Today it houses a small museum about Nashville music history, the Grand Ole Opry and the auditorium itself. It must be an experience to see a concert there, but we would have to save that for another time. We purchased tickets for the Grand Ole Opry (which is now staged in its own enormous concert hall) on Friday night.

We had some time to kill before dinner so we went to the Tennessee History Museum. We had originally planned to pass it up, but there were some interesting exhibits, particularly about presidents from Tennessee, including the colorful Andrew Jackson, champion of the common man. There was also an interesting exhibit about the rise of “fire and brimstone” preaching and Christian extremism.  Somehow it validated a number of Southern stereotypes.

After a long day of sightseeing (it didn’t seem like there was much to do, but in the end, we kept pretty busy), we found our first bar to listen to some live music. This is what Nashville is about, country music at its soul. After one drink, we moved to another bar that doubled as a diner, and stayed for a couple of beers. It was enough time to appreciate the all-male band, which played a mix of classic country, blues, and bluegrass- we bought their CD and then moved on to another place for dinner which also had live music. Our day had ended on a good note, we decided to head back to the hotel and rest up for another day in Nashville.



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