In doing some reading, I've learned that the mayor and citizens of Savannah met General Sherman outside of town during his Civil War March to the Sea to officially surrender the city to the North, thereby sparing it the fate of so many other southern cities of the time. A week after Sherman accepted the surrender, he and his troops marched to Columbia, SC and burned the whole city to the ground. The people of Savannah knew what a gem they had, and sparing it from certain destruction has allowed a lot of its antebellum beauty to live on into the present.
A view of River Street along the Savannah River. It's narrow with bricks and cobblestones, and the buildings are old as well; it gives it a very European flavor, aided by the number of quirky restaurants and shops it has to offer. On our first day, we ate lunch at an Irish pub on River Street and watched a huge transatlantic cargo ship negotiate its way up the river to port.
After lunch that day, Cliff had to return to the convention, so I did some exploring on my own. You can walk anywhere in the historic district of this city. The streets are in an easy grid pattern, peppered with perfectly spaced out squares (22 squares total), many of which were designed by colonist James Oglethorpe, the man credited with founding both Savannah and the state of Georgia. After leaving Cliff, I crossed the street from City Hall (you can see in the background here), and found a nice bench in beautiful Johnson Square where I enjoyed reading and watching people.
After my reading, I walked down Congress Street (right past Paula Deen's famous restaurant), and through Ellis Square, which was much more modern and included a fun water feature in which to cool off.
Once you go through Ellis Square, you enter City Market, 2 blocks of West Congress St. that are closed to auto traffic and filled with restaurants, night life, art galleries and shops.
On the other end of City Market, I found Franklin Square, which holds a memorial to the Haitian soldiers who helped drive the British out of Savannah during the Revolutionary War.
Savannah is also great for shopping, which I did plenty of in my 2 days, including everything from Goodwill to trendy local places. While walking around, I could not get enough of the beautiful live oak trees with their Spanish moss hanging from the branches. I'd always seen these in pictures of Savannah, and they really are everywhere, lending plenty of shade protection to your afternoon walk.
On Friday, Cliff had a sizable break in the action from his convention, so we were able to explore more of historic Savannah together. We walked all the way from River Street to Forsyth Park on the southern end of historic downtown. What a beautiful walk! Here we are at the fountain at Forsyth Park:
One of the coolest pictures I've ever snapped with our little camera!
Cliff chilling out in Forsyth Park:
The architecture in Savannah is varied and beautiful. In just a short walk, you can see everything from beautiful plantation houses, to old row houses, to French, Greek and Italian-inspired buildings. So pretty!
I read in one of the guides that Catholicism was banned in Savannah until, I believe, the late 1700's. When the ban was lifted, the planning for building a diocese evolved over the course of the 19th century, with the current cathedral being built by late century. My understanding is that it has endured near total destruction from a fire, was rebuilt and subsequently restored several times over the course of time to bring it to its current condition. The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist is a beautiful Gothic-inspired building that reminds me of the church I grew up in, both for its twin spires, and for some of the interior detail.
The Stations of the Cross look strikingly like the ones I saw every Sunday growing up!
We managed to find what is considered to be a "must-do" stop in Savannah: Leopold's Ice Cream. Yum!!!!!
Yum goes for all of the great food we ate, particularly our French café dinner at Papillote, our lunch at Moon River microbrewery, and our Saturday lunch at Huey's on River Street, where I had the most sinful French toast I've ever had the pleasure of eating. Two enthusiastic thumbs up for Savannah, Georgia, one of the coolest cities I've ever visited!
Gina
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