Today saw us touring Savannah with Peter. Pleasant trip that went reasonably quickly. Much the same type of scenery as seen on any other road trips made by highway. When we arrived in Savannah we went to the visitor centre and caught a tour called Old Savannah! Charlie our tour guide was excellent and a wealth of knowledge. Very friendly.
The Old Historic District of Savannah is layed out in a grid pattern 
with 23 town squares which are beautiful parks with grand old trees, statues, monuments, fountains and garden seats where many locals can be seen reading a good book. A plaque as pictured is found at each square detailing the history. Surrounding these squares are equally grand houses that date back centuries. Most of the houses are 200 - 250 yrs old. It is often easy to date the houses as many have a construction date plaque near their front door. Old Savannah has a large collection of stately manors that are architectually beautiful to 
behold. Savannah has it's share of movie fame with parts of "Forest Gump", 'Mosquito Coast', 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil', and many others being filmed here. It also was also the birth place of the Girl Scouting movement. 
Savannah, along with Charleston, also has a rich ghost and spirit tradition with our guide giving us some stories about some iteresting ghosts haunting some of the buildings. The town was also influenced by the occassional pirate. Several drinking dens of pirates of old still exist as popular restaurants. The town also has a rich history of being either enseiged by invading armies. Firstly by the British and later by the damn Yankies. During the civil war, bored occupying Union
Troups disfaced many headstones in a cemetry where they were based by moving around the headstones and using their bayonets to change dates. Hence there are many people buried in the cemetry who died at 140+. Unfortuately many headstones could not be returned to their rightful resting place and are now mounted on a wall nearby. (Cemetry has the arched entry)
Charleston and Savannah can be compared as being similar. Savannah, however, is more leafy. It has more parks, Charleston
had very few public parks. The parks in Savannah are dominated by huge old live (non discideous) oaks covered in Spanish Moss. One of these is a Heritage listed 300yr old oak. Neither town had many private gardens as most house blocks are relatively small and have relatevely houses. It was obvious that Charleston had a high a higher population of slaves as it was noted that most houses had a separate dwelling at the back to house the slaves. This was not as evident in Savannah. We saw the first African American Baptist Church that was linked 
to the underground railway that led escaped slaves to Canada. It was built with 'ventilation' holes in the floor which is where the slaves could hide during escape. Another feature found on many old buildings are good luck charms such as fish downpipes for goodluck.
The Old Historic District of Savannah is layed out in a grid pattern with 23 town squares which are beautiful parks with grand old trees, statues, monuments, fountains and garden seats where many locals can be seen reading a good book. A plaque as pictured is found at each square detailing the history. Surrounding these squares are equally grand houses that date back centuries. Most of the houses are 200 - 250 yrs old. It is often easy to date the houses as many have a construction date plaque near their front door. Old Savannah has a large collection of stately manors that are architectually beautiful to 
behold. Savannah has it's share of movie fame with parts of "Forest Gump", 'Mosquito Coast', 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil', and many others being filmed here. It also was also the birth place of the Girl Scouting movement. 
Savannah, along with Charleston, also has a rich ghost and spirit tradition with our guide giving us some stories about some iteresting ghosts haunting some of the buildings. The town was also influenced by the occassional pirate. Several drinking dens of pirates of old still exist as popular restaurants. The town also has a rich history of being either enseiged by invading armies. Firstly by the British and later by the damn Yankies. During the civil war, bored occupying Union
Troups disfaced many headstones in a cemetry where they were based by moving around the headstones and using their bayonets to change dates. Hence there are many people buried in the cemetry who died at 140+. Unfortuately many headstones could not be returned to their rightful resting place and are now mounted on a wall nearby. (Cemetry has the arched entry)Charleston and Savannah can be compared as being similar. Savannah, however, is more leafy. It has more parks, Charleston
had very few public parks. The parks in Savannah are dominated by huge old live (non discideous) oaks covered in Spanish Moss. One of these is a Heritage listed 300yr old oak. Neither town had many private gardens as most house blocks are relatively small and have relatevely houses. It was obvious that Charleston had a high a higher population of slaves as it was noted that most houses had a separate dwelling at the back to house the slaves. This was not as evident in Savannah. We saw the first African American Baptist Church that was linked 
to the underground railway that led escaped slaves to Canada. It was built with 'ventilation' holes in the floor which is where the slaves could hide during escape. Another feature found on many old buildings are good luck charms such as fish downpipes for goodluck. When we arrived we were informed by Charlie (tour operator) that there had been fire underground in the city sewer system. The result being the power had been turned off and the police had blocked the city centre off from entering traffic. Hence we were unable to view, by bus, much of the city centre and river front. As the bus was hop on hop off Peter was able to take us on a walking tour in most of the affected areas.
We finished the day at a typical bistro specializing in buffalo wings as well as other typical southern dishes. After discussion with Peter we discovered that tipping isn't a bonus but rather their wage. Most waitresses are a little over $2 an hour which basically coveres taxes. They live on thier tips!! Hence you don't see too many, oops any, unattractive waitresses with hairy legs.
We finished the day at a typical bistro specializing in buffalo wings as well as other typical southern dishes. After discussion with Peter we discovered that tipping isn't a bonus but rather their wage. Most waitresses are a little over $2 an hour which basically coveres taxes. They live on thier tips!! Hence you don't see too many, oops any, unattractive waitresses with hairy legs.
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