After spending three delightful days in beautiful Charleston, we arrived in Savannah with the intention of going for a night stroll and leaving the next morning. However, we fell in love with this city at first glance. Savannah is one of the most charming cities we’ve visited in the US. It may be relatively small, but it’s bursting with history, charm, and art. The city is meticulously planned, giving it a distinctive spirit. Every few blocks, there is a little green oasis with live oaks draped with Spanish moss.
General James Edward Oglethorpe founded Savannah in 1733, designing it as a series of neighborhoods centered around 24 squares. Chippewa Square, at the heart of the downtown historic district, gained fame in the movie “Forrest Gump.” Tom Hanks, who plays Forrest, sits on a park bench in this square for about 80% of the film, sharing his life story with anyone who will listen.
The historical part of Savannah is packed with beautifully preserved old buildings, each featuring small, cozy private gardens filled with evergreen plants and flowers. Savannah boasts numerous churches from different time periods and styles. The most spectacular among them is the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, designed and built in the French Gothic style in the early 19th century.
Forsyth Park, though small, is beautiful, featuring a gorgeous fountain. The city offers many bars and restaurants with live music. The cherry on the cake for us was an evening spent with our new friends Alison and Jim from SV Aquarius in a jazz bar.
And of course, who could forget the drainpipe ending with the open-mouth fish? Savannah truly captured our hearts with its unique blend of history, nature, and vibrant culture.
Great pictures from Savannah. Thank you.
Thanks Frank, it’s a very photogenic city!
“So?” says Silver. “Well, and where are they now? Pew was that sort, and he died a beggar-man. Flint was, and he died of rum at Savannah. Ah, they was a sweet crew, they was! On’y, where are they?”
TREASURE ISLAND, by Robert Louis Stevenson
“Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest—
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
The mate was fixed by the bos’n’s pike,
The bos’n brained with a marlin spike,
And Cookey’s throat was marked belike
It had been gripped
By fingers ten;
And there they lay,
All good dead men
Like break-o’-day in a boozing-ken—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of the whole ship’s list—
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!—
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion’s axe his cheek had shore—
And the scullion he was stabbed times four.
And there they lay,
And the soggy skies
Dripped all day long
In upstaring eyes—
In murk sunset and at foul sunrise—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men of ’em stiff and stark—
Ten of the crew had the Murder mark—
‘Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead,
Or a yawing hole in a battered head—
And the scuppers glut with a rotting red
And there they lay—
Aye, damn my eyes—
All lookouts clapped
On paradise—
All souls bound just contrariwise—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.
Fifteen men of ’em good and true—
Every man jack could ha’ sailed with Old Pew—
There was chest on chest full of Spanish gold,
With a ton of plate in the middle hold,
And the cabins riot of stuff untold,
And they lay there,
That had took the plum,
With sightless glare
And their lips struck dumb,
While we shared all by the rule of thumb—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
More was seen through the stern light screen—
Chartings no doubt where a woman had been!—
A flimsy shift on a bunker cot,
With a thin dirk slot through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot.
Oh was she wench…
Or some shuddering maid…?
That dared the knife—
And took the blade!
By God! she was stuff for a plucky jade—
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest—
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
We wrapped ’em all in a mains’l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser’s bight
And we heaved ’em over and out of sight—
With a Yo-Heave-Ho!
And a fare-you-well!
And a sullen plunge
In the sullen swell,
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell!
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”
THE DERELICT, by Young Ewing Allison