Saturday 10th October
Last day today. We are having our final complimentary breakfast at Omni Hotel Resort, Atlanta. We were lucky enough to get a complimentary breakfast for both mornings of our stay here because we had to swop hotels. We should have stayed at the Marriott in Atlanta but they were having a refurb so Great Rail Journey arranged a sudden swop to the Omni. It is better apparently and we get free WIFI and breakfast, so we forgive them. We are definitely on a winner because the buffet breakfast here costs 26 dollars and has everything; cereals, pancakes, full English, loads of fruit, grits (yuk), porridge (no thanks, not the thick grey slop of America) rest is good though. A saving of 102 dollars; I do like a bargain!
Yesterday (Friday 9th October) we went on the great big wheel they have here in Atlanta. I was terrified and held on for grime death. I was ok when I could see the structure besides us, but as you go up high over the top you lose that inner view and appear to be swinging in the air with no visible means of support. Alan was too busy taking photos of the view to be scared. At one stage he moved to get a different view and I screamed, at that point I could easily have dropped to the floor of the car, as a way of feeling safe. Each time we passed the start I pleaded to be let off. The car in front of us had a small boy in it, with his father, the boy was in floods of tears which did not stop until he got off; his Dad was trying to distract him, pointing to the park and skyscraper views but the boy was having none of it. I identified, felt the same and was relieved to get off. Thank goodness they take the photo first.
We have a few hours to kill before our 6pm coach to the airport for our 10 pm flight from Atlanta. We decided to visit Underground Atlanta, which we rath assumed was an actual Underground. It wasn't!
It was a place under Carter Street overpass. There were some permanent shops but a lot were in the form of stalls similar to our Birmingham markets back home.
Later I persuaded Alan to go on the CNN tour (Cable News Network). Their global organisation is run from CNN building in Atlanta. Luckily, it just happens be in the same complex as our Hotel Omni. The tour was quite informative. Explaining about auto-cue and green screen; we had heard of these things but it was well illustrated.
First, you ride on the longest escalator ever into a large globe of the world, where they take a photo of you sitting at a desk 'reading' the news. We did not do that as we have had several professional photos on the trip. We were taken into a news room and they explain how broadcaster sees lots of screens and choose which goes live. When 'live' appears above CNN on screen it is live. Next a volunteer does a news item, reading the auto-cue; she was very good. Then another volunteer stands in front of the Green Screen and we see a map of the world's weather appear behind her. She also holds a green cape and illustrates how Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility works. Eventually, we come back down to the ground floor and are deposited in the enevitable gift shop.
When we were getting a Pizza snack we met up with Sue and Brian again. Before long it was time to go to the Motor Lobby for our cases and the airport coach.
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