Day 15 - Nashville

On a personal note, the day started brightly for Chris and Tracey as we had a 10 minute Facebook messenger chat with younger son, Stephen, and Chris's Mum. Stephen turns 21 years old on Sunday, 16th, and, of course, we won't be there in person to celebrate and wish him happy birthday.

We should preface today's entry by, whisper it, admitting that none of our small party of four is even remotely a fan of Country Music - almost a sin in Nashville. However, when in Nashville.....

We kicked off by paying a visit to RCA Studio B , another iconic recording studio, however admittance is only by way of a combined Platinum ticket to enter the Country Music Hall of Fame so, sadly, our visit was restricted to admiring the building from only the outside. Next on our schedule was a visit to the American Pickers' Nashville Antique Archaeology store (Jan is a big fan of their long running TV series), a fascinating place packed full of old, interesting stuff. From there we headed off to the famous Bluebird Cafe but were thwarted again as we arrived only to find that the cafe doesn't open until 5pm so, for the second time today, we could only admire it from the outside.

Moving in to the afternoon, we dove to north east Nashville where the huge shopping centre the Opry Mills mall is located with the specific purpose of visiting Boot Barn so that Tracey could buy some cowboy boots (where better than Nashville?). Mission accomplished. On then to the hallowed home of Country Music the Grand Ole Opry for a backstage tour that was interesting and informative albeit some of the "famous" names of Country Music that have performed there honestly meant nothing to us cultural philistines. The Grand Ole Opry is an impressive place, accommodating an audience of 4000 on show nights, and has an unbroken record of broadcasting over the radio every Saturday night performance for more than 90 years.

Having returned to our hotel we walked past the Ryman Auditorium , home to the Grand Ole Opry before it was relocated out of town, to Broadway with its honky tonk bars and restaurants (Country music's equivalent to the blues of Beale Street, Memphis) for dinner at the Nashville Hard Rock Cafe (an antidote to a day full of Country Music. Sorry).