Our last days in the South were extremely busy. From Atlanta, we made our way to Savannah, once again (remember, Savannah was the farthest south we drove on our road trip during spring break). We loved Savannah so much, we really wanted to see it again in summer. But we quickly realized that Savannah in March is much more pleasant than Savannah in June... we almost melted!
By lunchtime, we made it to Brunswick, Georgia... where the famous Georgia Pig BBQ joint happened to be located conveniently next to the highway. We tried out the pulled pork but were not very impressed (maybe we are getting too spoiled!).
When driving South, we stopped in St Augustine, Florida, a Spanish settlement which became a very popular holiday destination in the late 19th century. We love this little town, it reminded us a lot of Andalucia in Spain (but more commercialized).
Next up was Orlando where we experienced an important part of American culture: theme parks! And not just any old theme park, no – the holy grail of all theme parks, Disneyworld. When ordering our tickets, we had to put our budget constraints aside (and start thinking about spending the last days of our road trip under a bridge) but in retrospect, the expensive tickets were really worth it. People who know me can tell you that I am a big Disneyland fan, meaning I’ve spent a big part of my childhood in the Disney park in Paris. So, I consider myself a semi-expert and now, I could finally compare the European park with its older (1971!), original sister park in Orlando. The verdict…Disneyworld, consisting out of 6 different theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and some waterparks) is a lot bigger than Disneyland Paris (only Magic Kingdom and Studios). We only visited Magic Kingdom and Epcot and we loved it, but I still prefer the one in Paris (maybe because of its sentimental value, or maybe because the park in Paris is more manageable?).
On our last day in Orlando (June 24), we drove to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center. A tour bus took us right to the launch platforms and the building where the space shuttles are built. Quite impressive! We learned that standing 400 feet from the launch would kill you because of the heat and 800 feet because of the sound, that the space shuttle (incl. mobile platform) has to be transported very slowly to the launch platform since it weighs 9 million kilograms and that the kid behind us would like to become an astronaut when he grows up...
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