Charles Street streetcar
Tuesday 7.11.23
Today is a free day as far as the tour operator is concerned but that is not how we see it. There are shops, this is the USA and so it is time to acquire some Levi jeans as outlet shops are always very cheap and so our trips to the USA always include an opportunity to acquire jeans.
We head down to the mall by the river and soon my purchases are completed. Less happily the food outlets are at the very far end of the mall and no-one is doing anything particularly breakfast like. I think we all wanted a bacon butty or something similar even if it is not good for us.
With my shopping needs satisfied (three pairs of Levis – always bought on trips to the USA) I am released and I head for the Streetcars first taking the line along to the terminus at French Market. At the time of our visit the Riverfront service is not running and only the service back from French Market runs to Cemeteries “Canal Street line” is running and so I go to the other end of the line which is mainly a ride along Canal Street. At the end I double back slightly and then take another streetcar to the other northern terminus at the City Park and Museum. It is now mid-afternoon and incredibly warm.
Modern NOLA Streetcar
Returning to Rampart Street I then take the service to Union Station – a location we shall visit tomorrow. The service to Elysian Fields Avenue is not running so I return once again along Canal Street and can then take the historic trams operating to South Claiborne Avenue. However for reasons which were poorly explained the driver of the streetcar insisted that I and others leave the vehicle at St Charles Avenue about 9 stops short of the terminus. She was pretty insistent and it was annoying to then wait a good 10 minutes or so before there was a streetcar to return to the hotel.
This trip on the St Charles Avenue line as it is known was the most interesting as it traversed a very different part of the city – and the oldest in the world opening in 1835 and electrified in 1893. It has operated continuously apart from storm disruption throughout. The other lines at some point closed and subsequently re-opened. St Charles Avenue itself is fascinating with a tree lined avenue and some stately houses on both sides. Plus Universities and restaurants – which are too far in the wrong direction from the hotel for us to experience.
We dine at Mr B’s Bistro tonight – again in the French Quarter – a place which had been spotted on our walking tour yesterday and opposite the Hotel Monteleone where cocktails are taken.
By the way when arriving in a restaurant in the Deep South there is an absolute need to order a cocktail. Obtaining a whole bottle of wine seems to require a member of management being summoned with keys to unlock some remote distant storage to enable a full bottle to be extracted. This takes so long that the ordinary wine drinking punter can die of thirst before the bottle arrives. No wonder people order cocktails.