Sunday 2 May 2010

Richmond Virginia

Richmond Virginia was one of only two places on the trip where we stayed in the same place for a number of days and with us staying downtown we had plenty of opportunity to explore the city, mostly during silly hours (5am anyone?).


Towering over the city is the John Marshall Hotel, which used to be the most famous hotel in the city before being closed. Due to be demolished it had been recently saved so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.


They shouldn't lose the large sign on its roof though! It's well cool!




For the tourist the River Walk is probably the best place to go with small plaques explaining the city history and nice gardens to walk through.


Also a good area to go if you own a too-lazy-to-walk device.


For evenings head to Shockoe, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city's history and now home to most of the nightlife and restaurants. The Sine Irish Pub was good for food but don't expect to be able to finish the main course, we found the portions too big. If you're too late for the restaurants then City Dogs should be open, a sports bar with an excellent array of food and friendly service!


The National is a small music venue and on the night we were staying, Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek was playing and we were going to check him out. We got there a little late and it was pretty loud from just outside the venue. The music sounded good but we could hear an awful singer trying to fill Jim Morrison's part and failing miserably. So we chose not to bother.


Nice chopper motorcycle outside the venue.


The Richmond Coliseum is the major entertainment venue in the city, well it was until a fire caused some damage that still needs to be sorted out. It has also been home to basketball and WWE wrestling events. At night it's a popular meeting place for the more unsavoury citizens of Richmond so we were only here for as long as we needed to be.


Nice statue inside the within the Virginia General Assembly grounds.


Around the back of the Virginia State Capitol building. This whole area was immaculate with well maintained lawns giving fireflies somewhere to play and flash the locals. There weren't 10 million of them but we did just stand and stare. I don't know if there's an owl in this city.


The Capitol building from the front. Very nice indeed and looking not too shabby for a building over 200 years old.


We liked it so much we went back in the morning to take more pics...before it rained and we went scuttling back to the hotel.


Cool mural not far from the hotel.


Richmond endorse pedestrian power!






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