Some places on the map attract me for the pure pleasure of seeing and hearing their names. El Paso, Tallahassee or Pocasset — there is some mystery in those names like in exotic dishes that I am eager to taste. Savannah is one of them.
For a while already I had wanted to go there. I have heard about its charm and its southern hospitality. So on the way to the Cape by a southern route, Savannah, Georgia was a perfect stop.
There was no special agenda, nobody there to meet, no particular monument, battlefield or cemetery to visit — a great contrast with the visit to Montgomery, Alabama. The only goal was to stay in the center of the city for the possibility to walk everywhere and stumble upon things — to experience that city intuitively and intimately.
Our hotel was located in the historic district near the Savannah River and a wave of southern hospitality touched me immediately at the reception desk. A very kind, elegant gentleman — wearing a bow tie — glanced at my Priority Club Rewards card and upgraded our room, without extra charge, to a room ”with the view” as he put it. And what a room it was! A penthouse with four windows, and every one with a slightly different view of the Savannah River.
From the moment of checking into the hotel, till two days later checking out, the Savannah visit was a pure delight.
Here are some photos illustrating what I stumbled upon there.
Lion Fountain near the Factors Walk area
Savannah River - view from the hotel's roof
Historic Water Front - eastward
Historic Water Front - westward
Water Front building - texture
Bradford making a rose for Alicja
Sweet Mellisa's restaurant on Whitaker St.
Savannah's oldest hotel
College of Art and Design
Architectural detail
Park at Wright Square
Southern Live Oak
Spanish Moss
Spanish moss is a very interesting, self-sufficient plant, not a parasitic one as some seem to think. For me the most intriguing fact is that this plant is not related to other common mosses but (I would never guess!) to the pineapple. They are distant cousins in the family Bromeliaceae. Let me know if this is not correct or what you think about it.
In the meantime, just for fun and your pleasure here is an interesting old tale about Spanish moss (reprinted from Wikipedia):
There was once a traveler who came with his Spanish fiancée in the 1700s to start a plantation near the city of Charleston SC. She was a beautiful bride-to-be with long flowing raven hair. As the couple was walking over the plantation sight[sic] near the forest, and making plans for their future, they were suddenly attacked by a band of Cherokee who were not happy to share the land of their forefathers with strangers. As a final warning to stay away from the Cherokee nation, they cut off the long dark hair of the bride-to-be and threw it up in an old live oak tree. As the people came back day after day and week after week, they began to notice the hair had shriveled and turned grey and had begun spreading from tree to tree. Over the years the moss spread from South Carolina to Georgia and Florida. To this day, if one stands under a live oak tree, one will see the moss jump from tree to tree and defend itself with a large army of beetles.
Well, the beetles did not attack me while taking this picture! Perhaps they were sleepy that day.
Wright Square
Elegant street pot
Till next time Savannah!
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Photos and text (except the Wikipedia article) copyright © 2011 by Alicja Mann.
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