Atlanta

17th Feb
We arrived in Atlanta about 7pm (local time) to a warm evening, 62°F/16°C.  We had a very smooth journey with British Airways, a good flight, lots of films watched, good food, even scones with clotted cream & jam - very British!

A quiet evening at Atlanta airport meant we managed to get through customs pretty quickly. The customs (& other airport) staff were all very friendly, no problems issuing us our 6 month visa.  We then hopped in a taxi to our hotel, Holiday Inn Express, Downtown Atlanta (rooms similar to UK Holiday Inns!). Again very friendly taxi driver & hotel staff.
We sorted a few bits out, checked all our gadgets charged using the American adapters we'd bought and then went to bed.  UK time it was about 2.30am, (US time 9.30pm) so we were quite tired but the time difference meant we could get a good full nights sleep and wake up, hopefully, at a reasonable US morning time helping avoid a bit of jet lag.  We did wake up during the night but managed to get back to sleep & wake about 6.30am so not bad. This was also our first night sleeping in a proper full size bed for a month - our camper van bed was very small & short!

18 Feb

Today our priority was to get an American phone number and buy our first 4 days trail food. 

Breakfast at the hotel was good, buffet style with plenty of choice.  We tried sausage,  a sort of mini egg omelette folded in half with cheese inside (I'm sure we'll learn what that's called very soon) with biscuit (like a savoury scone/cobbler).  We then tried a cinnamon pastry, all really nice.

Downtown Atlanta is not really a shopping district, more commercial but with lots of restaurants, so we got the Marta train north to Atlantic Station, a big purpose built outdoor shopping centre/cinema outlet. It reminded me of being in Disneyland Paris, the paved street setup of shops with music playing from pavement speakers, an outdoor ice rink and fairy lights on trees. A nice relaxed laid back atmosphere and very friendly people, which is what we've experienced in Downtown Atlanta too.

We managed to get our phone Sim changed and do all our trail food shopping by midday so we returned by train to drop our shopping off at the hotel. 

We then headed for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park, a short walk from our hotel and to the World of Coca Cola which was founded in Atlanta in the 1800's. A fun tour with lots of Coco Cola memrobilia from around the world and free drink tasting of their worldwide drinks menu - there's some strange ones!

We then walked over to Atlanta Underground, an interesting old underground train station now converted to a shopping centre with shops and stalls. We were walking round in t-shirts, it was a fantastic sunny day.

Back to the hotel we sorted and packed our trail food before heading out for something to eat. Weve quite a bit of weight being added to our packs - we've no scales but at a guess 10lbs food weight between us.

We visited Max Lager's for food, Atlanta's oldest independent brewery restaurant, using a wood fired grill for cooking. I had BBQ ribs and Nigel a steak, absolutely delicious!  I'm not a beer drinker but Nigel tried two of their own brewed beers, he was in heaven - hoptastic!

Tomorrow we head north to The Hiker Hostel!

Evening view from our hotel