Monday 16th January – NOLA part II

In a repeat of Saturday, we bussed and trammed it into the city but this time down to the Mississippi where we wandered through the riverside shopping arcade.  We splashed out on a much-needed replacement rucksack and popped into Café du Monde for a New Orleans tradition – coffee and beignets which are pretty similar to doughnuts, where they then add a mountain of powdered sugar on top. Very tasty and calorific. 

The Creole Queen floated by while we were in Cafe du Monde

We walked on to the National World War II museum which came highly recommended from several different sources.  It was very well done, split into the two main areas of War in the Pacific and War in Europe. 

An example of how the sections of the museum are set out and the attention to detail

For someone like me who knew far less about the Pacific conflicts than those nearer home, the pacific area was the most interesting and rather than just cabinets of exhibits, the displays were made as realistic as possible. There were some very interesting exhibits.  For example, the flight record and watch worn by Colonel Paul W Tibbetts Jr, who was at the controls of the Enola Gay on August 6^th 1945 when it flew the most destructive sortie ever flown, dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima:

It’s hard to come to terms with the scale of destruction caused by that decision but hearing about the tactics of the Japanese and how they were conditioned never to surrender, one can only estimate the loss of life that would have occurred had the allied forces attempted a manned invasion of Japan rather than using nuclear weapons.  How much longer would WWII carried on for if that decision wasn’t made?  And at what cost in human life? 

In a separate building, there was a display of WWII vehicles including tanks and numerous aeroplanes (or should that be airplanes America?!), so Simon was happy and we stayed until closing time again!  Outside, we had planned to get back on public transport and explore some of the cemeteries but the weather was turning....

A rainbow over the WWII museum... rain was on the way.

.....and dusk was approaching so we decided that we could fit the mausoleums in tomorrow morning on our way out of the City.  A speedy trip back to the RV site was required – Uber to the rescue again!