Lolomiina: 30.11.2019
From Atlanta, we headed to the coast. We stayed overnight and the next day, November 28th, we experienced the most important holiday in the USA, Thanksgiving. Not necessarily ideal, as today some of the sights we wanted to visit were unfortunately closed. We visited the city of Savannah, which was founded in 1733 as the first settlement of the British colony of Georgia. The old town is considered one of the most beautiful in the USA with its many green squares and restored houses. We can definitely confirm that after our visit. We strolled along Factors Walk, which is named after the former cotton merchants or "factors" who were active here. We walked through some passages from the 19th century and visited some shops that are now located in the restored warehouses. Unfortunately, the River Street Market Place was closed due to Thanksgiving. However, from here we enjoyed some views over the Savannah River. A landmark of the city, the Savannah River Waving Girl, is located directly on the river bank. From 1887 to 1943, the "Waving Girl" Florence Martus personally greeted every ship in the port of Savannah, today her statue takes over that role. We strolled through the streets of Savannah, passing by old churches, a historic cemetery with ancient tombstones, the city's first hotel, now the Moon River Brewing Company, the "Olde Pink House" from 1771, which now houses one of the city's trendiest restaurants, and a handful of the 24 squares that the city has to offer for recreation. We enjoyed the few hours in Savannah before continuing to Charleston.
Charleston was once the metropolis of the southern states and a hub of the slave trade. You can still visit many things from this past era near the city. For example, the Boone Hall Plantation. Unfortunately, closed today due to Thanksgiving. The Angel Oak, estimated to be 400 to 500 years old, is also very old and worth seeing. Unfortunately, closed today due to Thanksgiving. However, we were able to catch a glimpse of the huge oak tree through the fence. It has a diameter of 8.5 meters and provides shade on a whole 1,600 square meters. From this attraction, we finally went to the beach after a long time. The endlessly wide and white Folly Beach is about 12 kilometers from downtown Charleston and invites you to take a walk and relax. Our last stop in the area is Charleston Habour. Here you will find the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum with the large aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Unfortunately, closed from 2 pm today due to Thanksgiving. We now set off again, as we still had 234 miles to Concord near Charlotte. We had booked another accommodation with a private person here. And lo and behold, Thanksgiving had something good in store for us. In a huge house, a man lives all alone and had prepared a turkey, mac 'n' cheese, rice, cornbread, ham, and several other delicacies for his family. Unfortunately, his family could not visit him due to various incidents. So he offered us to enjoy his Thanksgiving dinner with him. We ate deliciously, slept well, and the next day we continued to Washington D.C.