Or so said the promotional material but there’s a fat chance of that in Memphis. Woke up in our Elvis rooms, with 24 hours Elvis films and biopics on the TV, overlooking the heart shaped pool! Had the breakfast from hell, polystyrene plates, plastic forks, plastic food – yummy – living the American Dream!! Elvis radio playing in the communal areas and in the hotel car park, directly streamed from Elvis radio which we can get at home on our computers – something to really look forward to.....
Gracelands, Elvis’ home was across the car park and on the opposite side of the busy road – we’d thought it would be somewhere nice, but it is surrounded by tack. But to be fair when he lived here all those years ago it was probably surrounded by countryside which has now turned into the long busy neon strip with all things Elvis that it is today.
We take the Elvis bus across the road as no-one walks here and up the drive to Graceland, everyone else was hushed – it was semi religious – we, on the other hand, were out for a laugh!! The house is Palladian pillars, ante bellum on a Woking scale – so quite modest really. Through the doors, with our headphones on and the self guided trip around the living room, parents’ bedroom, dining room, cinema, billiard room, jungle room. No upstairs visit as this was private!! - but disappointing. The decor is unspeakable – see photos – we kept gasping with distaste and met a few Californians of a similar opinion. The gardens behind had stables , horses, racquet ball courts and a museum with lots of his jump suits – he obviously didn’t understand less is more!!
Elvis is buried next to his pool – nice! People were leaving candles and gifts, we filed past taking illicit videos!
The trip ended with visits to see his cars and to walk through his planes - one of which was called the Lisa Marie. We were fed up to the back teeth with Elvis by lunchtime. So we entertained ourselves with the search for the tackiest souvenir – and boy was a there a choice!
So what else has Memphis to offer? We thought we’d go native and take a local bus downtown. We waited in the oppressive heat for 50 minutes for the bus to arrive and when it didi– well what can we say about our fellow travellers? Let’s just say underclass and leave it there. Gill even had to give up her seat for an 80 years old man with a portable disco! He later got thrown off the bus – but the accents were so think that Gill and I had no ideas why? The areas around downtown were really poor, full of pawn shops and boarded up buildings – this is such a country of contrast. This was the first real poverty we’d seen and of course it was the black communities who were living like this.
Downtown Memphis was surprisingly small, they are obviously trying to re-generate the city centre with limited results so far. We set off to the Mississippi River, for a paddle boat afternoon cruise – the rust bucket served nachos and plastic cheese, was falling to bits as we floated down river under the enormous bridges that crossed to Arkansas. The 1.5 hours passed slowly!!!
You can tell that Memphis has been through rough times and has no soul, only blues - actually that’s not true as it has both musically. Our journey has seen the local music change and here it is clearly blues with soul mixed in and a bit of rock ‘n roll.
We found the Peabody Mall to hide from the heat, but it was horrid, so after a quick Starbucks we took a taxi back to the hotel, for a quick turnaround, following our first afternoon nap of the trip (there hasn’t been time so far!) and out again and back to downtown Memphis on the Elvis Express Shuttle bus – yes they did play us Elvis. We got off at Beale Street – a short street of happening music bars and drinking dens, and we enjoyed a few drinks listening to Blues.
Lonely Planet had recommended the great ribs at Rendevous , a Memphis institution for dry ribs, they serve five tonnes of ribs a week. It was very good and we enjoyed it enormously. The evening ended pleasantly enough listening to more live music blues in the warm evening. The Elvis express shuttle took us home to Lonely Street and the Heartbreak Hotel. By now we are both ready to move on.
Gracelands, Elvis’ home was across the car park and on the opposite side of the busy road – we’d thought it would be somewhere nice, but it is surrounded by tack. But to be fair when he lived here all those years ago it was probably surrounded by countryside which has now turned into the long busy neon strip with all things Elvis that it is today.
We take the Elvis bus across the road as no-one walks here and up the drive to Graceland, everyone else was hushed – it was semi religious – we, on the other hand, were out for a laugh!! The house is Palladian pillars, ante bellum on a Woking scale – so quite modest really. Through the doors, with our headphones on and the self guided trip around the living room, parents’ bedroom, dining room, cinema, billiard room, jungle room. No upstairs visit as this was private!! - but disappointing. The decor is unspeakable – see photos – we kept gasping with distaste and met a few Californians of a similar opinion. The gardens behind had stables , horses, racquet ball courts and a museum with lots of his jump suits – he obviously didn’t understand less is more!!
Elvis is buried next to his pool – nice! People were leaving candles and gifts, we filed past taking illicit videos!
The trip ended with visits to see his cars and to walk through his planes - one of which was called the Lisa Marie. We were fed up to the back teeth with Elvis by lunchtime. So we entertained ourselves with the search for the tackiest souvenir – and boy was a there a choice!
So what else has Memphis to offer? We thought we’d go native and take a local bus downtown. We waited in the oppressive heat for 50 minutes for the bus to arrive and when it didi– well what can we say about our fellow travellers? Let’s just say underclass and leave it there. Gill even had to give up her seat for an 80 years old man with a portable disco! He later got thrown off the bus – but the accents were so think that Gill and I had no ideas why? The areas around downtown were really poor, full of pawn shops and boarded up buildings – this is such a country of contrast. This was the first real poverty we’d seen and of course it was the black communities who were living like this.
Downtown Memphis was surprisingly small, they are obviously trying to re-generate the city centre with limited results so far. We set off to the Mississippi River, for a paddle boat afternoon cruise – the rust bucket served nachos and plastic cheese, was falling to bits as we floated down river under the enormous bridges that crossed to Arkansas. The 1.5 hours passed slowly!!!
You can tell that Memphis has been through rough times and has no soul, only blues - actually that’s not true as it has both musically. Our journey has seen the local music change and here it is clearly blues with soul mixed in and a bit of rock ‘n roll.
We found the Peabody Mall to hide from the heat, but it was horrid, so after a quick Starbucks we took a taxi back to the hotel, for a quick turnaround, following our first afternoon nap of the trip (there hasn’t been time so far!) and out again and back to downtown Memphis on the Elvis Express Shuttle bus – yes they did play us Elvis. We got off at Beale Street – a short street of happening music bars and drinking dens, and we enjoyed a few drinks listening to Blues.
Lonely Planet had recommended the great ribs at Rendevous , a Memphis institution for dry ribs, they serve five tonnes of ribs a week. It was very good and we enjoyed it enormously. The evening ended pleasantly enough listening to more live music blues in the warm evening. The Elvis express shuttle took us home to Lonely Street and the Heartbreak Hotel. By now we are both ready to move on.
