After a very welcome/restful sea day yesterday, we docked at 9am, met our small group and headed off the ship to meet our 'walking tour' guide, Sue – a truly gorgeous 'Southern Belle', with a passion. It was already very warm and about to get a whole lot warmer…. very hot!! Fortunately, most of our walking was in the shade of the most beautiful residential buildings and it was a pleasure to listen to Sue proudly speaking about this style of architecture, as well as her life growing up just a few blocks away, and of course the history of Charleston.
The few streets we strolled through were immaculate – all beautiful and two/three-storeys, some with a very unique design. These particular homes were originally built to allow more homes to have water views. They are long and narrow with a "fake" front door, which actually leads to a covered porch with staircase to the floors/porches above. This clever and practical design also combats heat and humidity by allowing air to flow through the home.
We went inside the Circular Congregational Church and were impressed with its dark wooden, boxed pews and also the very high pulpit which appeared to reach out to the congregation. There was also a very expansive cemetery on the grounds with some very ornate headstones. We went into the grounds of Nathaniel Russell House, which is a National Historic Landmark, and now a museum. The streets were clean and the traffic slowly passed us by – no noisy horns or sirens today, such a change to the bustling chaos of New York.
After close to 3 hours meandering, Sue left us at the City Markets which extended over 4 city blocks, and very up markets too – a lovely array of local product, including a whole range of items made out of seagrass to tempt us, and it was out of the sun, so the place to be. We had an iced coffee at Bubba Gump – it wasn't on the menu but the barman didn't do a bad job of it – at least it didn't have half a carton of whipped cream on top – cold and wet, with that burst of caffeine which we were hanging out for.
Charleston is located on a peninsula formed by two rivers flowing into the Atlantic and protected from the open sea by surrounding islands, it has no tall buildings and it's almost like going back in time…. except for many of the high quality shops, and thank heavens, an Apple Store!!!
Back to the ship for a change of shoes, quick cool down and a bite of late lunch and then we were off again into the steamy city, with that parcel still to post in hand. We thought we had plenty of time to get to the post office as we were told it closed at 5pm, but we went to the wrong post office and it was already closed. We didn't have time to get to the other one so the parcel returned to the ship, again!! Now thinking our next port Miami will be on Sunday, we won't be able to post until Monday, in Key West. Sorry Micky, don't think your pressie will arrive in time L
As often happens when visiting ports, the local people put on a Folkloric Show in the theatre, which is always very entertaining, as was this 5-piece "Bluegrass Showcase" band. We give Charleston a 10 out of 10…. Just delightful J
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