We started off our trip at a wonderful sunny morning in the French Quarter with a steaming and aromatic hot cup of coffee, hot chocolate and a fluffy but crispy beignet at the world-famous Cafe du Monde. This Café is a little bit of a tourist trap and you have to be willing to wait a while in line the experience is well worth it and costs less than $10.
When we satiated our sugar and tasty carbs cravings, we spent a few minutes just strolling around. Royal Street is great if you’re into antiques. It is also a good place to find little voodoo shops in which you’ll find seers and tarot readers. Of course, we wouldn’t want to miss MS Rau at 630 Royal. This shop deals in fine art and antiques, and often has things like paintings by Monet, Faberge eggs, and Tiffany glass pieces on display.
We also could not resist popping into the stunning St. Louis Cathedral, which is free for visitors and worth a stop.
In the Afternoon we strolled over to the Central Grocery to look out for a bite to eat. There are a lot of options which made it hard to decide. I went for a Muffuletta, a local favorite invented right there. The sandwich is heavy on the olives, so if you’re not an olive fan, like my husband, skip it. He picked up one of the world best Po-boys at Parkway.
We had the fortune to have a car so we visited the New Orleans Museum of Art and its stunning Besthoff Sculpture Garden (If you don’t have a car, take the red line streetcar all the way to the end. Form there it’s you a short walk to the museum. For the street carts, you can buy an unlimited day pass for $3 or a single ride for $1.25).
The museum houses the finest collection of art on the Gulf Coast, and the permanent collection includes pieces by Picasso, Miro, Monet, and many more. It also houses outstanding collections of Asian, Pacific, Native American, and African art, as well as fascinating rotating exhibits that represent a diverse range of artists, subjects, and media.
The sculpture garden is free and so worth a visit as well. The setting was just gorgeous, and such a lovely place to spend an afternoon with my better half. We checked out the surrounding park, as well. There we went all out and rented a paddle boat to enjoy the peaceful and romantic atmosphere of the lake.
All this exploring made us hungry again, so we hopped back in the car and drove into the Garden district to eat at Little Korea BBQ. This is the best Korean BBQ I’ve tried so far in the south. The food is terrific and the prices very reasonable. It’s definitely just as good as Korean BBQ places in LA or NYC.
New Orleans is famous for its night scene and we definitely wanted to check that out. Even though my husband and I are in no means Party people, we took a stroll thru Bourbon Street’s bars and other drinking establishments. The crowd was quite wild und we settled quickly to visit the Burlesque show at Burgundy bar in The Saint Hotel. The show is tastefully made and you can sit back and enjoy a nice cocktail.
Next morning after we got satiated with a nice filling hotel breakfast we vent to visit the National WWII Museum. It’s quite a big museum so I would recommend to plan to stay there at least 3 hours. Newly educated after our museum visit we hopped into our car and headed off to the Garden District, around Washington and Prytania streets.
Here we found Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, one of the city’s oldest and most beautiful cemeteries. It gets locked up at 3:00, so you’ll want to get in there with at least a half-hour to spare. It’s not too big, but it can be great fun to meander slowly through the lanes and read the names on the stones.
After we checked out the cemetery, we headed out for a walking tour of the neighborhood. You can stop into the Garden District Book Shop and buy one of the many books on their shelves that contain a map and suggestions for a self-guided walking tour.
It’s easy to spend a few hours just ambling around this old neighborhood, and there’s no reason to rush. As we had your fill of cracked sidewalks and old mansions, we took ourselves out for some Creole food at Commander’s Palace. This Creole restaurant has been operating at the heart of the Garden District since 1880.