Day in Nashville
Spent a day seeing a little bit of Nashville area.
First a drive east a few miles to The Hermitage, home and final resting place of Andrew Jackson, hero of The Battle of New Orleans and President of The United States. Very interesting. We spent over three hours touring the mansion and grounds. Audio tour gives lots of information on demand at many locations through out the extensive grounds. Docent led tours of mansion very good. House is 95% original in all respects including wallpaper murals ordered from catalog in early 1800’s. Lots of history and information well presented. Did not realize the passage of time.
Back of Hermitage mansion. Front had too many trees and tourists to get good picture.
Jackson tomb.
Next a quick visit to a craft/sewing/needle arts store that Sue read about online sometime. Not too impressive but done.
Next visit was to Belle Meade mansion and grounds. The estate was over 5500 acres at one time. Now down to about 30. In its’ heyday, before the civil war this estate was THE race horse breeding center of North America (had no clue horse racing was so big pre civil war). A horse named Bonnie Scotland was stabled there. That horse is not so well known but his descendants are legend. In many Kentucky Derby's every horse was a descendant of Bonnie Scotland. Several double and even triple crown winners.
Entrance drive to Belle Meade
Belle Meade mansion. Look carefully at columns and you can see pock marks left from brief Civil War skirmish in front of mansion
After Belle Meade we drove into downtown Nashville to see Ryman Auditorium and capitol building. Not fun. Impression of downtown is like Fisherman’s Wharf chaos with even narrower streets (if that is possible) and populated by good old boys and girls. Not really but picture it. We did drive by the Ryman and capitol though.
Ryman Auditorium. Original home of Grand Ole Opry. New location much better.
Tennessee State capitol building.
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