Memphis

Heartbreak Hotel, Museums and Blues

We arrived in Memphis on June 9 and two days later, we could sing along with every song Elvis has ever recorded. Our first night in Memphis, we stayed in the Heartbreak Hotel next to Graceland, Elvis' home.Graceland is like the Disneyland for the baby boom generation, a giant Elvis theme park built around his former house. The house itself was a lot smaller and more modest than we expected... but the two private jets and the gigantic collection of amazing old timers quickly reminded us how big a star Elvis really was.

We also had a taste of Beale Street in Memphis, which feels like a smaller, calmer version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. We walked into the Rum Boogie Cafe for an amazing live blues session by Victor Wainwright and his band.

Memphis has a lot of music museums and we visited all of them: the Stax Museum (or Soulsville), the very famous soul music recording studio, Sun Records Studio where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and many more recorded hit singles (and we were able to touch Elvis's microphone!) and the Rock and Soul Museum giving an overview of Memphis' rich music history.

We also visited a more serious, very different side of Memphis: the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. The National Civil Rights Museum showed us that not so long ago, the States and especially the South was not so welcoming to the black population. It made us very quiet to see the daily effects of segregation up close... 

As far as food is concerned, we tried out the amazingly delicious fried chicken at Gus's and the yummy dry pork ribs at Corky's...  both very successful in making us one step closer to becoming contestants on America's Biggest Loser!