From Nashville to Santa Fe: 10 things you shouldn’t miss.
by Lilian and Joana Breidenbach
Here are some highlights from our 15 days long mother-dauther trip through the American South: From Nashville to Santa Fe, via New Orleans, Houston, Austin and Marfa.
- Bartaco, Nashville
We loved their tacos, especially the one with Portobello mushrooms! Its located on 12th S Street, which hosts other good shops such as Imogene and Willie for clothes, or the Frothy Monkey, where we took our morning coffees.
We also took a deep dive into the country music scene, visiting Country Music Hall of Fame and a performance of the oldest running music radio show, the Grand Ole Oprey. Its an aquired taste.
2. French Camp, Natches Trace
From Nashville, we travelled to New Orleans via the scenic Natches Trace. Its a beautiful drive through marches, historic monuments and a very Christian French Camp, which houses among others a surprisingly tasteful Bed and Breakfast. First time we had cheese grits — and we liked them!
3. Frenchmen Street, New Orleans
After being thorougly disappointed by the drunken and tacky French Quarter, we passed a very lively evening on Frenchmen Street, strolling from bar to bar, listening to hight quality musicians.
4. Casamentos, New Orleans
A simple neighbourhood restaurant, with a great vibe, where Lilian had her first oysters (and didn’t like them very much). Our favourite cafe in New Orleans was the HiVolt in the beautiful Garden District.
5. Rothko Chapel, Houston
Here we spent the most perfect hour of our whole trip. The Rothko paintings confront you with a very essential part of yourself. I experienced myself totally naked, while Lilian entered a deep, calm state. If I were to live in Texas, I would visit every month.
6. South Congress Hotel, Austin
We loved this place. As a hotel, it has everything we wanted: great looks, perfect location, good food, a spacious bar, a gym for our freeletics sessions and a pool for the morning swim. We also loved everything else in Austin. What a good place!
7. CorePower Yoga, Austin
Whenever we could, we dropped in to a Yoga class. The most intense was here in Austin. Doing heat yoga to overcome jetlag was a real discovery for us.
8. Qui, Austin
Funky website, amazing filipino inspired food. A very good choice, especially after our BBQ-taste-test. For lunch we recommend the True Food Kitchen.
9. Marfa
What a strange, little town! In the middle of nowhere, on a high Texan plateau, this place has recently achieved real fame. Most of the town is dominated by the legacy of Donald Judd, who moved to Marfa in 1971. But you also find a minimalist hotel, a number of very fashionable clothes and furniture stores and galleries, many UFO experts on the lookout for the Marfan Lights, a cafe in a laundrette and a miniture Prada store. We stayed in an old hotel, which had hosted James Dean, Rock Hudson and Elisabeth Taylor, while shooting Giants.
10. Ten Thousand Waves, Santa Fe
We spent the last days of our trip in Santa Fe, visiting my son (Lilians brother) Vico, who attends St. Johns College. While on previous visits I had always stayed in typical new Mexican Bed&Breakfasts (this one is great), this time we opted for the Ten Thousand Waves, a Japanese-style spa with lodgings. We enjoy walking around the large grounds with our kimonos and plastic sandals, moving from the hot tub to the cool tub to the sauna and back.
If you are doing a road trip through the american South, we can recommend this podcast on the Civil War: The Civil War (1861–1865). We learned a lot, even though we didn’t listen to all 150+ episodes. And you have to tolerate Rich and Tracys relationship “jokes”.
And here are a few movie recommendations for this trip:
As I lay dying by James Franco (I enjoyed watching the film on Netflix parallel to reading Faulkners 1930s classic)
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln
Spike Lee’s Malcom X
The 1999 episode The Filed Trip on the X-Files (being based on a similar phenomenon as the Marfan lights).
Also: Giants with James Dean and Selma about Martin Luther Kings epic march.
