Early morning surprise surprise! It's GRACELAND TIME! I'm so excited I may just wet myself!!
We got breakfast and brought it to the room, we got bagels for dinner and couple of bagels for tomorrow morning when we are travelling because we don't want to be buying anything in the airport! Plus we love a good picnic!
Again it was like a ghost town, I know it's a Saturday but there isn't anyone walking the streets or cars anywhere, it was like labour day, we could look down a street and for about 5-6 blocks not see a car. Really didn't like how quiet it was!
The bus drivers are so friendly over here, they tell you where you need to get off and on and give you timetables, it's nice and friendly :)
It took an hour to get to Graceland on two buses, these cities aren't very tourist friendly, even the bus stops don't have a timetable or a sign to say which buses go down the route, a lot of bus stops are a green sign with a bus on it to stuck on a lamppost.
We checked in, everybody was given an iPad with a audio tour on it for each room and options to view virtual tours and extra photos and videos available; we had to get a shuttle bus after another cheesy souvenir photo, I was confused where Graceland was! ...it was opposite, the shuttle took us across the road and up the driveway. It was huge and beautiful! He bought the property in 1956 when he was 21 years old, it's 13acres (I think that's right?) huge anyways. And he bought it for $100,000. It was called Graceland because the people who owned it before had it made as a present to them from a woman named Grace; so no special meaning really. Inside was flashy! The kitchen not so much. He had a jungle room where the carpet was on the ceiling and walls as well as the floor, an indoor waterfall, it was crazy! We weren't allowed upstairs because he was a private man and out of respect Lisa Marie won't allow people up there.
The house was pretty small in comparison with mansions today, it had a tiny pool with huge grounds; he had a ginormous stable built and called rising sun after his favourite horse rising sun. He had a mediation garden, which is now where he is buried along with his mum, dad, grandmother and twin brother who was stillborn.
His grandmother outlived all of them. It gives you shivers, there is an eternal flame there above his grave also.
Lisa Marie still goes to the house and stays and has dinner parties now and again. It would be pretty disappointing if we had travelled all the way to memphis and it had been closed to the public because she was there.
After the tour of the mansion we were taken back to the museum on the opposite side of the road; we went to his automobile museum; he had so many cars! Mostly roles royce's and Cadillacs and a lot of gadgets like motorbikes, buggies and mini jeeps and he had a snowmobile which is strange because memphis never has snow apparently.
His airplanes were insane, he bought a huge boeing plane for $150,000 and spent $700,000 kitting it out, there were four sections, living room, dining room, seating for friends and turned into a bed and his bedroom at the back with an ensuite. All of the clasps on the seat belts were pure gold. He didn't do anything half way!
After the planes we went through the exhibits that have his cloaks and memorabilia from his movies, tours and childhood.
When he died he had an open casket and was placed near the gates of his house for fans to come and pay respect, how creepy!!
Graceland is worth $300million today!!
After we had finished the AMAZING tour which I loved every minute of and tried searching high and low for him (think he was hiding upstairs!) haha. We headed back and chilled out in the room, we were going to do sun studio but it was too far out on the bus; we drove passed it going to Graceland, it's a really small building!
I sorted my bag out and Ross fell asleep again!
It rained for about an hour or so which was needed!
Alrhough this evening it was chilly, that's the first
Time this trip I have felt chilly outdoors.
Beale street was packed!! I understand why they have barriers stopping people from driving through and they have around 5-6 police cars on every block. Makes you feel safe but at the same time it makes you wonder, why?!
The music was bouncing again and the buskers were on top form! We went in a bar and watched a band play, there were rock and roll and an elderly couple got up and started dancing, they had the crowd going absolutely wild haha!!
Flair okay thought they were cracking dancers!
We had two 32oz beers tonight - naughty; but we were enjoying the music and atmosphere too much to go back to the hotel at 9pm! even though we had an early rise at 3am for the plane. We watched the buskers on the street and in the park; they had the crowd up dancing all the time, such a feel good factor Beale street.
There are a lot less homeless people here in memphis, compared to other cities we have been too, all of them had a severe homeless problem. Here there were overall about 15-20 homeless we seen all weekend, which is incredibly low!!
Loved memphis!! It came and went way too fast though, the time is flying and I'm 8 cities down with one to go! It only feels like a couple of days ago I was saying that the other way around!