We woke to another bright sunny day and set off after breakfast on foot. It was only about a 10 minute walk down to the main music sights but on the way we passed a couple of parks where the homeless people seem to congregate. You see these poor people everywhere of course ( including Sydney) but we’ve seen more of them here in Nashville than anywhere else on the trip.
On our walk we passed the Ryman Auditorium. It was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. What is the Grand Ole Opry? you ask? Well, since debuting in 1925, as a local country music radio program it has become a Nashville institution. During its time at Ryman Auditorium, the Opry hosted the biggest country music stars of the day, and the show became known around the world. The Opry eventually grew too popular and too large for the Ryman and has now moved to an enormous complex in the inner suburbs of Nashville, but it still draws huge names in Country Music and is a mecca for country music fans.
A little closer to the river we stopped to look at the Country Music Walk of Fame, a little like the Hollywood Walk of fame but devoted to country music stars. It is across the road from the huge Country Music Hall of Fame, an amazing building whose windows are inspired by a piano keyboard. We had tossed up about which museum to visit in town and decided that we’d prefer to visit the Johnny Cash Museum up the street.
However, before saying hello to Johnny we took a quick walk up onto the pedestrian bridge that crosses the river and joins the downtown area with the huge Nissan Stadium. I think Neil was feeling a little sad that we hadn’t arrived in town early enough yesterday to see the big game. It’s definitely on his “Must do” list to watch an NFL game on one of our trips.
The Johnny Cash Museum was outstanding, I’m not a big country fan but I really like Johnny Cash and it was so interesting to see the development of his life and career, he certainly had his ups and downs. There was wonderful music playing throughout the whole experience, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
From there we walked back up to the hotel ready to get our car and set off to see the sights a little further our of town, primarily to see the new home of the Grand Ole Opry. Unfortunately there are no shows playing while we are in town,maybe next time!
The Opry is located next door to an enormous outlet shopping mall called Opry Mills, and we spent a fruitful couple of hours picking up some more bargains. I’m so lucky that Neil enjoys shopping! We were a bit gobsmacked when we walked into the Bass Pro Outdoor Shop. This HUGE store sold everything you could want to for Huntin’, Shootin’ and Fishin’ just so long as you were happy to have it in “camouflage green”!
Camo curtains
Camo recliner…
and lots and LOTS of camo clothing
They also strongly believe in the Second Amendment to the constitution here, we could have walked out with such a fine selection of guns and ammo… Yikes!
After all our exercise we were pretty hungry so we were pleased to see a Johnny Rocket’s Diner in nearby. We hadn’t had a “diner” experience so far this trip so we really loved our tasty BLT with fries and root beer for Neil and iced tea for me.
After a filling late lunch we really didn’t feel like a big dinner so we took advantage of the hotel’s “Evening reception” tonight to tuck in to a light dinner. A nice Californian wine, cheese selection & crackers, fruit and salad were all we needed to finish off a great day in the Country Music capital. Tomorrow it’s off to another music city…Memphis!