Nashville - Our First View of Downtown and the Ryman

We drove straight from the Aquarium in Gatlinburg to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.   It was quite a decision as to whether to stay at this hotel or not.   It's about 20 minutes from downtown, but with my discounts from work, it was very affordable for us.   I'm still not sure if we made the right decision.  The public areas are gorgeous, but the rooms were mediocre.   Check-in was a nightmare because there are 2882 rooms in the place!  As I suspected, it was a PITA to go back and forth from the hotel to downtown.  And everything was way overpriced.   I think my motto should be, "If we can't afford to stay there at full price, we can't afford to stay there."    But the hotel was definitely not what we were there for!

Once we got situated, we went right downtown because we had tickets to the show at the Ryman Auditorium that night.     

The Iconic Ryman!

The very Famous Tootsie's Alley.......the performers would sneak across the alley to Tootsie's before, during and after their shows at the Ryman for a little libation.

This turned out to be our favorite bar.....more photos later

We arbitrarily picked this place to eat dinner our first night.   The BBQ was delicious!   And two different tour guides identified it as their favorite places for dinner later on in our visit.

There were at least a 1/2 dozen places you could go to buy cowboy boots and hats.

Ernest Tubb's Record Shop - another icon.  Hubby was disappointed that they had very few LP's...mostly CD's.   But he managed to find one he could buy anyway!

The pink building is the outside of Tootsie's - we went there later in the week for a drink and a dance.

The Stage is another great music venue

That night we went to a show at the Ryman.   The Ryman is the original Grand Ole Opry before it moved.   The show was set up like the original old radio program.  More pictures of the building later, as we took the backstage tour.

Our host was Larry Gatlin who was very funny and put on a great show.  He sang with his two brothers and their harmonies were so sweet!!  There were performances put on by several young stars as well.

And the other entertainer for the evening was Crystal Gale.  She still has her long, black hair down to her feet!

Then it was back to the hotel for some rest and more sightseeing the next day!