Jude Marguerite & Ben's blog: Atlanta, Georgia (Part 1)

What's going on here then? It's only Marguerite reading the News at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, that's what it is!!! She certainly looked a natural at this game I think you'll agree.

Atlanta is, among other things: the home of CNN, the home of Martin Luther King, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, the city of the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996, the home of Coca-Cola and a very nice place indeed to spend a few days chilling out.

Culture vultures would love it as it has a lot of history. Jude was really impressed with the architecture and the beauty and cleanliness of the buildings, so much so he rambled on about them all weekend. Melter! Again Jude's organising skills were amiss as he marched Marguerite to the Federal Bank of Atlanta (white building to left there) for a tour to see how U.S. money is made, only to find it was shut on Satudays - Doh!!!

So there is plenty to do and see in Atlanta. The problem was deciding how to go about seeing it. Walking tours have been done loads of times, the bus tours loads of times, the boat tours often times and even the helicopter tours twice. What other type of tours can there possibly be? Surely we'd covered them all by now. A clue - Jude's advice to Marguerite on Saturday morning was, 'it could be a long day so wear suitable footwear, just wear flat comfortable footwear'.

Oi, come back here with that lawn-mower woman! Ah, but it's not a lawn-mower it's a Segway and it's what we're doing today's tour on. Nice hat!

Yes folks, welcome to the future (though admittedly this might take a year or two to kick in Belfast, ok then - a decade perhaps). It's 2010 and it's Segway time, yee haa! Oh and check out the footwear there folks, I say check out the footwear. Wha?

Now how does this blighter work? I'll figure this out if it's the last thing I do.

What's that film called? Mall cop, aye it's class. Well this was like Mall Cop only it was a City Tour. Here is Maguerite passing her 'driving test'.

Now it's Jude's turn to get to grips with the Segway. 'Get of the streets I say.......eh sorry........I mean get of the footpaths, I'm coming through'.

'Get out of my road woman or I'll run ya over'.

'I'm said I'm gonna run you over you stupid edjit ya, quick, move.............get outta the road'.

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

Before long the lessons are over and everyone is off and hovering around Atlanta while admiring all those sights, like the Hurt building seen here below. However, danger lurks around every corner, especially on a Segway, or worse, especially when on a Segway with high heels on!

'Now, it's all about balance and feet movement my dear', stated the tour guide.

Marguerite replied, 'Sure this is just like riding a bike....... hold on I can't really balance this right, I mean it's hard to control, is it meant to be so hard to contol?'

'You'll get the hang of it my dear', mumbled the tour guide.

(Look folks, whatever you do don't mention the high heels, I know it's stating the obvious, but don't, just leave it).

'I said I thought it was just like riding a bike, take that hearing aid out there love'. 'But now I find it's harder than it looks'. 'Ah sure it's easy', stated the tour guide.

(Remember - don't mention the heels)

Memorials to the Olympics are commonplace in Atlanta, as you would expect. The Centennial Park was particularly nice to take a break and stroll about in. Here fly the flags of all the nations who hosted the games in it's first 100 years.

Ah, it's another one of those mad spotlessly clean buildings of Atlanta. Honestly, you would think that they shine these things every day, how can they be soooooooo clean?

As stated, Atlanta is the home of Martin Luther King and his Civil Rights Movement which helped bring equality and basic human rights for all in the 60's. This monument at the State House commemorates the rise of black people from the bottom (boxed to be sold as slaves - working farm land etc) to the top (living as equals in the modern world).

Did I mention that Atlanta is also the home of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. Jude showed his age by admitting Jimmy Carter was the first president that he could remember (Carter left office in 1981).

Ok, anyone who thought that New York was the only place in America to be a home to a Statue of Liberty would be mistaken. On this trip alone, Lady Liberty statues have been spotted in New York (of course), but also in Las Vegas and now Atlanta too.

It's amazing what you learn. There is a worldwide protocol for statues depicting a person on a horse. If all the horse's hoofs are floored then the person aboard did not suffer injury or death in battle. One hoof aloft indicates being wounded in battle while two hoofs aloft let you know the person died in battle. Wha?

Jude was fascinated by this spot here. It in a park in the center of Atlanta. Folk come here every day to play chess outdoors. What's fascinating about that you ask? Jude just thinks it's a brilliantly simple idea in a city center and how it manages to stay intact is hard to believe.

We've all tasted it many times in our lifetimes, Coca-Cola that is, but this is the place where it was first sold at Doctor Pemberton's Pharmacy at Five Points in Atlanta in 1886.

'Now, what a stupid place to put a dopey fence'. Marguerite is blaming everything from the fences to Jude (for wanting her to speed up) as she crashes her Segway into thon fence. Moments later she ended up in a heap. Jude knows when is a good moment to take a pic and when to hold off. Sometimes life is more important than getting a pic. Marguerite would not have taken kindly to Jude thinking of a pic for the blog as she lay in a heap, so it couldn't be done......life is more important.

Just don't mention those high heels whatever you do folks. Even a Monkey would know it does not make sense to ride a Segway in high heels, hey maybe Darwin was right, maybe we did evolve from Monkeys!!!!

On with the tour then. The Bank of America building was pretty spectacular too......

........while this wee skinny building here needs a good dinner or two.

Oh dear, it's the end of the road for Marguerite as she finally throws her dummy and toys out of the pram and ditches the Segway saying, 'sod this for a game of Cricket, bloody stupid Segway, I'm outta here'.

Marguerite is back on solid ground, this time under another of Atlanta's cool monuments.

'Puuuuuuuuuut yer hands up.........in the air.........put yer hands up..........in the air. Put yer hands up....... ok you get the picture. The Segway tour was excellent. It really was the most fun way to see a city. Apparently they do it in San Francisco too, so roll on San Francisco then. Marguerite says she will try it again in San Francisco but perhaps she wear flats. By now she was parked up with a wee glass of wine licking her wound from her 'trainwreck' crash (a big 'ginormous' nasty cut on her foot that you needed a magnifying glass to see).

The Regency Suites was the hotel of choice. We can't get it perfect every time. The hotel was nice but we were awoken between 4-5.30 am with a few noisy folk in a neighbouring room laughing, shouting etc, basically they were having party. You know how annoying this can be. Yeah well Jude got up nice and early (2-3 hours after the culprits went to sleep) and began ringing their room tel number every 10 mins until he went for breakfast at 10.00am. Then just as they would answer, he would hang up. Very childish indeed. He even came back up after breakfast to call them again and to remove their 'do not disturb' sign from their door so the cleaners would go in....hehehehehe!

Older blog readers might remember that doll Margaret Mitchell who wrote the film 'Gone with the Wind',well that's her house there, where she wrote the book. As Emma's David would say, 'smashing'.