You may notice that I’m now heading entries with the name of the place I’m actually reporting on. This is so I can find them later instead of having to guess what the name of the place was because of some totally irrelevant heading…OOH AHH!
Anyway, now we find ourselves actually in this place called Miami. As I noted previously Miami is a big city, unexpectedly so after seeing all of the crap yankie shows which just tend to focus on the beach. We’re actually at Miami Beach but this is just a part of Miami proper albiet seperated by a strip of water. Damn it – I loved it. Oozing ‘art deco’ it really does have some character unike most of the rest of what we’ve seen…
Our hotel, the Washington Park was no exception….
but the city proper is just like any other in the US….
except its largely built on land reclaimed from the Florida swamps.
Lunch on day 1 was just over the road from the hotel…
although this is a night shot of the place you get the idea. The main restaurant strip is beachside and we got there later in the day…
and even got some entertainment. Its vibrant!
Mind you, I don’t think these old bones can do it that often! It’s a novelty. Strangely, the food all seemed to taste better here as well.
Some more art deco….
and some art crappo….
Banksy is God here!
Miamians are seemingly wealthy…
but there is the odd one who perhaps is not (though he might have just been tired of spending money)..
despite the noise next door…
we’re only here for two days so next is down to Key Lago. Everyones heard of this place ‘cos it was in a song once but now having been there I don’t know what there is to sing about. Why the yanks have constructed these massive bridges to connect some insignificant islands I don’t know…
but then again they drained the swamp to make Miami
The whole strip reminds us of the Gold Coast in the 60’s. We did not get to the end, Key West, ‘cos it all seemed like more of the same – not in the least what we expected. Anyway it was a nice day but in desperation I had to eat Maccas and that spoilt the day somewhat – its still not fit for human consumption so I don’t know what that says for all the fat people lined up at the counter! (stop pointing fingers)
We got back in time to take in the Wolfsonian…
and which also had an eclectic exhibition of posters focussed on the Russian revolution..
and it certainly did my heart good to see all of this outdoor propaganda. See I told you it works even when you put it on a plate!
I think there’s more to see and do in Florida and we would probably come back to find out if we live long enough.
From here its a few hours drive back to Orlando to go on to the UK so day 3 we head off. Actually took less time than expected so we sat around an airport for some hours and some would say ‘chilled out’. I wouldn’t, I just thought it was a great waste of time but we had nowhere else to go. Finally caught a plane for the UK and I managed a couple of hours sleep while Jude watched, so when we hit the ground some 8 hours later neither of was worth jack shit. Then it was an hour through immigration but fortunately Justin was waiting at the other end to carry us to the train.
And now we’re in London!!!!
One Response
Ooh, ah, ooh – well now I’m tired just reading all that. Great stuff – very interesting. Can’t wait to hear the comparisons. Say “hi” to Justin, Jane and Edith for me. When will you be heading to Skye?