Where to begin, where to begin...
Well, we're still in Savannah for a few more days. Today took a walking tour this morning with Savannah Dan (www.savannahdan.com), and yes, he does wear a seersucker suit. We had a blast! If you want a walking tour, his is a great one to take.
We learned lots about Savannah's history and were reminded that it's "The War of Northern Aggression" here, rather than "The Civil War." That pretty much sums up the Deep South's opinion of the war, though I think it's more due to someone else invading their space and telling them what to do than anything else.
We learned about haunted places and most importantly, fantastic restaurants (we'll come back to that in a minute). We also learned about how the city was founded, built and how it grew. It was really a fascinating tour. And, we got a bit of exercise in there as well.
Oh, and we also got to sit on a bench near the Forrest Gump bench. That bench, by the way, doesn't exist in Savannah. They made one for the movie and also changed the traffic on the street to the opposite direction. There's a large flower bed where the bench was in the movie.
Here's a picture of one of the many monuments in one of the many squares:
I have to admit, I love the squares. There are so many in the city center and they're really a nice break from the rest of things. Originally, the squares were designed with trust lots surrounding them. The idea was to allow a set number of houses and a set number of businesses on the lots. Although "progress" has changed the face of the city since it was founded in the 1700's, many of the trust lots (and their original purposes) have remained. That's why you often see a bank, a church, and some houses on the main squares even today.
The original reason for having so many squares was not for looks. Rather it was for fire breaks. See, the city, like so many cities back then, was built of wood. So, the city planners purposely added in squares to help break up the fire (that was sure to come) and to help save other parts of the city.
Speaking of churches:
This is one of my favorite churches here, mostly because they gave General Sherman the big "screw you." What can I say? I like it when people stand up for their beliefs! When Sherman occupied the house next door during "The War of Northern Aggression," he demanded that they remove the bells from this church as the hourly ringing was annoying him. Well, the women of Savannah banded together and physically blocked his troops from taking the bells. Legend says that Sherman said that the women of Savannah had such tenacity and vigor that if they had fought the War, the South would have won.
And, this church, is without question one of my absolute favorite churches. It's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and is unlike any other that I've seen in the States. It rivals many of the churches I've seen in Europe, and I've seen many across Europe. Check out this detail work:
That's the main altar. Just like the churches in Europe, they had side chapels. They also told Bible stories in stained glass down the sides of the church.
Here's a picture of the stained glass window from one of the side chapels:
And some close ups of the stained glass along the sides of the church:
Check out the detail in the robes in this even closer shot:
How cool is that?! Yes, I have a thing for stained glass, especially really, really good stained glass like this. They used glassmakers from Innsbruck, Austria for the stained glass. Not that Americans can't do something like this, but they knew they needed someone with mad skilz and these guys fit the bill.
This church was also restored recently. They started the restoration process in 1998. The church borrowed $12M for the restoration and has paid back all but the last $500K. That's something!
Also, the church, like most European Catholic churches, has murals painted on most of the walls. Like these above one of the side chapels:
And I have to admit, I have a thing for painted ceilings in churches.
Even though it's really hard to get a good picture of them.
And, even though I could talk about this church for hours, want to get to why I titled the post the way I did, so I'll share just one more thing about this church. Savannah was very big into iron (both cast and wrought) at the time this church was rebuilt (the rebuilding began in 1898 and finished a few years later). The columns are not marble. They're cast iron painted to look like marble. Check it two of the three pictures just above this paragraph for samples of the columns. Cool, eh?
And now, I finally get to the point.
When we asked Savannah Dan where we *must* eat, he told us about Mrs. Wilke's Dining Room. It's only open from 11-2 on weekdays. It's cash only. You also wait in line (we waited for close to an hour and got there around one) to get a table, which you share with 8-10 of your closest strangers. Say what?
And then you sit and food is literally waiting for you. Good true Southern food. Food like I expected to have at Paula Deen's restaurant, but didn't get. And then you take your first bite and close your eyes as you hear Madeline Kahn singing "Oh Sweet Mystery of Life Thank God I Found You..." in your head. And then you stuff your face as well, you'd be insane not to. You make really tough decisions like, "Should I have another piece of this piping hot fresh out of the fryer fried chicken or should I have some greens?" or "Which of the 15 side dishes should I stuff into my mouth with this bite?" And you pass the serving platters and bowls around to your ten new best friends and pretend to talk while you gorge yourself on tasty deliciousness. You laugh about the calories until you realize that: (a) they don't count, and (b) they actually didn't use that much butter or fat in most of the recipes (or at least a lot less than you'd expect) so they're actually fairly healthy. You debate whether to eat the butter beans (good luck finding those in the North) or having another bite of sweet Savannah barbeque. And then at some point your stomach is about to explode and they bring dessert. Our choices today were either (this is the only time they said "either" and not "all") blueberry cobbler or banana pudding. I got the latter and my sister got the former. We stole bites of each other's selections and our eyes rolled back into our heads again. That was by far the best banana pudding (which had some sort of light bready crust in there) I have ever eaten. I seriously considered licking the bowl or bribing the waitress for more. And then you realize the true downfall of this meal - you're not at grandma's so you don't have a couch you can go and lay on while you moan. And moan you will. From the fact that you're frighteningly full and from the fact that you just ate one of the best meals ever. If only I had space in my stomach (and it was open), I'd go back right now!
Unfortunately, I took the food pictures on my sister's camera, and she forgot her cables to hook into her laptop, so I'll have to update later with food pics.
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