Wow - Ant and I can't believe we have never been to South Carolina before - it is a beautiful state. We were reluctant to leave Hilton Head Island with it's low key low rise buildings and beautiful beaches; and I was apprehensive about visiting Charleston after my disappointment in Savannah. All our fears were unfounded. Charleston is a charming old city (named after King Charles II) situated at the junction of the Cooper and Ashley rivers. We took a 1 hour carriage ride with an amazing, funny, informative guide and learnt so much about the history of the city which is closely intertwined with our own history. Charleston was once the 6th richest city in the US but didn't recover from the Civil War until the 1970s due to several disasters such as the great fire of the 1860s and an earthquake in the 1880s!! After all that, they were hit by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and had to rebuild again. Luckily, at lot of the original buildings survived and have been preserved (lots of photos in the Charlston album).

We arrived quite late at our hotel but OMG was it worth it!!! Ant managed to find the most amazing penthouse junior suite for just $54 a night!!!! (£42). Check out the pictures in the penthouse album. Unfortunately, we are only here for 2 nights. The down side is that I spent most of my time doing 5 loads of washing as we have our own washer and dryer.

It is currently 10:30 am and the temperature is set to rise to 69 degrees today - hoping to find some cycles to hire today.