New Orleans

There is, in fact, a house in New Orleans they call The Rising Sun. Whether this particular house has been the ruin of many a poor boy is open to question. I guess we have to be thankful we only saw one house named thusly.

The effects of Hurricane Katrina are still very obvious with many, many buildings derelict and boarded up. It looks like the owners have just boarded up six floor buildings and left town – which in fact could be true because estimates of people who have left New Orleans range between 300,000 and 400,000. One of the freeway bridges close in to town still has people living in tents beneath it. Notwithstanding this, there is a real spirit of regeneration and the city is starting to get back to normal.

The French quarter is still very lively and full of art and antique galleries, restaurants, bars and buskers. We heard a number of buskers but the highlight was a Dixieland band called the Loose Marbles who were absolutely great. They had a resident couple of dancers as well. The band is made up of 15 musicians who turn up on a casual basis so that at least 8 to 12 of them are playing at one time. This means that you may hear different songs and different arrangements each time depending on which musicians turn up. Apparently the group does not do formal gigs but prefer to be street musicians.

We spent much of our time walking around the French quarter and eating out. However, we did find time to take a trip down the Mississippi River on a Paddlesteamer called the Natchez and we did take the ferry across the river to walk around a beautiful and old part of New Orleans called Algiers.

While we were walking around New Orleans we noticed an inordinate number of pirates, both men and women all dressed up in elaborate costumes. We finally found out that the very weekend we were there was a "pirate convention" and they had come from all over. The photo below finally answers the question: What does a buxom wench look like?