Come walking with me around Savannah

We booked into our hotel in Savannah, yesterday at about 4pm. Eliza Thompson House is a grand old home on historic Jones Street. It has been converted into a guest house, and has a reputation for being haunted. Confederate soldiers have been seen at upstairs windows, and a girl in a white dress, in the hallway. Lucky for me, I don’t believe in ghosts. 😕

The porter who showed us to our room on the ground floor, had the most gorgeous Georgia accent. Our room was beautifully furnished, and very comfortable.

There was this large bust of what looked to me, rather like Napoleon, right at the bottom of my bed in front of the window.

I awoke in the middle of the night, and saw this guy looking right at me. The light from the street lamp was shining through the window, and he gave me quite a fright, until I woke up sufficiently enough to remember where I was. A few years ago, writers from The South Magazine, stayed here to get a first-hand reporter’s view of paranormal activity. They stayed awake throughout the night to study the creaks and nuances of this historic home, and using their own “Fright-O-Meter” scale to compare the various local houses researched, they concluded that The Eliza Thompson House was a 4.5 out of 5. Well, even though I’m not a believer, the fright I got was a 5 out of 5.  😯

Before dark, we went out for a walk around the historic district. There were many parks, all with their various monuments.

I thought this one in honour of a fallen soldier, Sergeant William Jasper, was quite beautiful.

Chippewa Square was of special interest, because it’s outside this park, that Forrest Gump sat on a bench, and the feather came floating down. The bench has been removed to a museum, but we worked out where it used to stand. There was supposed to be a plaque marking the spot, but although we looked everywhere, we couldn’t find one. Hubby thinks that it was right where the name plaque is. Just the other side of the wall was a group of people listening avidly to a sermon being preached at great length by a very enthusiastic preacher man. There was a table with a couple of cooler boxes underneath, and I wondered if maybe after they’d been sitting on the cold concrete bench for an hour’s preaching, they may get rewarded with something to eat and drink. I certainly hope so.

There were many churches along our route, all architecturally beautiful.

The Baptist one was the most stunning of them all.

The shops were all decked out for Christmas, and their window displays looked quite tempting, but we didn’t venture inside as it was starting to get dark, and we still had a lot to see.

We got quite a surprise when in the distance, we suddenly saw a South African flag blowing in the breeze. We walked across the street to see what it was all about, but the establishment was nothing but a ‘greasy spoon’  takeaway, which didn’t look any too appetising. There were also American, Italian, and Swiss flags, alongside our rather garish Y-Front one.

Just a little bit farther along, we saw this gift bag hanging outside someone’s gate. The tag simply said, “For Fred,” and I couldn’t help marvelling that one could actually leave something like this out in the street, and know that no-one but Fred would take it. This certainly wouldn’t be the case in South Africa. It would be gone in no time, as would many of the lovely outdoor Christmas ribbons, flowers, and wreaths on display. 😦

There were so many beautifully decorated houses, and they all looked so cosy and inviting.

After a really good nose around the neighbourhood, we went back to our hotel, and sat in the lounge sipping wine, and eating cheese and crackers, delicious sandwiches and pesto bruschetta.

There was a French couple from Paris who were touring around looking for a historic property to buy as a holiday home, a couple from Michigan who had just come from marrying off their daughter to an Englishman, and an elderly couple from the Gulf Coast of Florida, who seemed to know a lot about the political situation in South Africa.

Today we are headed for Fredericksburg, stopping off at Florence which is the closest Starbucks along the route. Clever hubby found an app for my iPhone which tells me all the Starbucks locations. 🙂 It’s nice and warm in the car, but the wind chill factor outside makes it feel like -1 C, and my hair flies around like silk butterflies.

If I don’t get to visit your blog, it’s not that I’m ignoring you. I had to wait for 3 hours to even post this. 4G seems to be a rare commodity on the I-95 through South and North Carolina. 😦 Just talk amongst yourselves until I’m in business again.