DESTINATIONS CRUISE | MISSISSIPPI


UNUSUAL ATTRACTIONS


The Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum: In 1894, the Biedenharn family took a popular soda beverage and bottled it for the first time, resulting in the world’s most famous fizzy drink. This museum in Vicksburg includes reproduction manufacturing equipment and a store selling all things cola.


Grandmother’s Buttons: In 1985, Susan Davis started a craft stall selling jewellery made from her grandma’s old buttons. Today, her family members source antique buttons from around the world to create unique pieces in a grand old bank- turned-shop in St Francisville.


USS Kidd: Known as the Pirate of the Pacific, this Second World War destroyer is moored at Baton Rouge. Passengers sailing on America qualify for free entry to clamber around the decks and cramped living quarters that once housed 330 crew members.


BOOK IT


Fred River Cruises offers a 10-night Lower Mississippi cruise on American Cruise Lines’ Queen of the Mississippi (pictured) from £4,599, departing March 19, 2022. The price includes a one-night stay in Memphis, excursions, all onboard meals, beer, wine and soft drinks, plus a daily cocktail hour, evening entertainment and flights from London. fredrivercruises.co.uk


CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Beale Street,


Memphis; Vicksburg; American Cruise Lines’ America; and State Capitol Building, Baton Rouge PICTURES: Shutterstock/f11photo, Suzanne C Grim, Paul Brady Photography; Patrick Niddrie; Thomas Loof


As we leave behind the cityscape best known as the former home of Elvis, King of Rock’n’Roll, we reach uninhabited stretches flanked by sandbanks and trees. The next day I wake up early, still jet-lagged, to a low mist hanging over the water and empty rocking chairs gently swaying on the deck. It’s an ethereal sight. Our first port of call after Memphis is Vicksburg,


where the 1863 battle played a pivotal role in the American Civil War. Our excursion to Vicksburg National Military Park reveals 1,400 memorials dotted throughout the battlefield’s hilly terrain, with the chance


to walk around the fascinatingly eerie remains of the USS Cairo – which was salvaged from the Mississippi after 100 years and is the only surviving wartime ironclad gunboat.


SOUTHERN CHARMS Next up is Natchez. This quintessentially charming city was first inhabited by American Indians and has, like many settlements along the Mississippi, subsequently been shaped by various cultures, including African, French, British and Spanish. I opt for the excursion to Longwood, an extraordinary building that’s the largest octagonal house in America but was never completed due to the misfortunes of its original owners. From here it’s on to another charming town,


St Francisville, described as “two miles long and two yards wide” for its compactness. The town was once the commercial centre of the surrounding plantation


26 20 MAY 2021


33A stirring final night concert by the Victory Belles, singing tunes from the 1940s, heralds our arrival in New Orleans


country. To learn more, we embark on an excursion to Rosedown, a magnificent 19th-century former plantation house filled with original furnishings. Our penultimate stop takes us to Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, where attractions range from the Old State Capitol and a museum housed in a historic government building to a floating casino. From here we continue our journey, mooring for a stop at the grand Houmas House, a former plantation and historic estate. There’s an alternative option to visit Oak Alley Plantation, named after its sweeping grounds and home to poignant slavery exhibits. A stirring final night concert by the Victory Belles, singing tunes from the 1940s, heralds our arrival in New Orleans, 100 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, in the Gulf of Mexico. We could have driven there from Memphis in six hours, instead of meandering down the sinuous river, where you can sail 30 miles around a sweeping bend and only end up a mile from where you started. But after a week on the mighty Mississippi, I certainly know which mode of transport I prefer.


TW travelweekly.co.uk


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