Muic City USA - the home of country music. We spent a very nostalgic day today touring the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum where we saw memorabilia from stars such as Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and of course Elvis Presley, including his prized gold Cadillac and piano. You don't have to like country music to appreciate the museum and in fact a lot of music has crossed over into main stream pop / rock in more recent years with stars like Shania Twain, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift.

The entry fee included a tour of RCA studio B where many artists recorded over 1000 hits between 1957 and 1977. The most famous of course was Elvis - the studio closed the day after his death in August 1977 (the date of the closure had been pre-planned before Elvis died). He recorded over half of all his hits here and not only did we get to visit the studio where he recorded, but also to sit at the piano he played - quite an emotional moment for me!

This afternoon we took a walk round the streets of Nashville and up to the Capitol Building. As we worked our way back down Broadway (the entertainment centre of the city), we couldn't resist the call of a cold beer in a bar called Tootsies. At 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon the bar was heaving with locals and tourists alike listening to local musicians - it was great fun.

We leave Nashville tomorrow to head towards Memphis and more Elvis memories when we visit Graceland on Monday - I'd better get the tissues out!!