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Excursions For a Half Day Opryland: This is one of Nashville’s major attractions but, as it is located about ten kilometres (six miles) from Downtown Nashville, the visitor will need to allow at least half a day to get there and see everything. Opryland is a collective term for the whole area, also known as Music Valley, which contains the Opryland Hotel and the Grand Ole Opry. Other attractions include the Music Valley Car Museum, the Music Valley Wax Museum, the Nashville Toy Museum and the Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase Museum. From Downtown, the area is easily accessed by the Music Valley Express (bus 34) and, once there, the Music Valley Trolley shuttles along Music Drive. The Music Valley Drive Information Center, Suite 100, 2416 Music Valley Drive (tel: (615) 871 4005 or (800) 847 9102) provides information on all the following attractions. The Grand Ole Opry (website: www.opry.com) is America’s longest continuously running radio show and celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2000. There are two shows a night on Fridays and Saturdays, for most of the year, as well as a Tuesday matinee mid-June to mid-August. These shows get booked up well in advance, so reservations should be made (tel: (615) 889 6611). There is also a Grand Ole Opry Museum, devoted to the stars from the shows. The Opryland Hotel Indoor Gardens and Collections has three huge glass-roofed atriums, which enclose magnificent gardens. The largest of these covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) and contains a 400m-long (1320ft) river. At night, there is live music and a laser show. The Music Valley Car Museum has vehicles that belonged to Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton and other musical luminaries. The Music Valley Wax Museum contains over 50 waxworks of country music’s greatest stars, in their original stage costumes, as well as a Sidewalk of the Stars, with the feet, hands and signatures of the country music stars imprinted in the concrete. The Nashville Toy Museum concentrates on antique toys – mainly toy trains, with two huge model layouts. The Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase Museum focuses on the country music legend but also features displays on his friends, who included Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley. Nashville Zoo: Over 350 animals are on display in this innovative zoo, which covers 81 hectares (200 acres) not far from the centre of the city. The Nashville Zoo, 3777 Nolensville Road, Grassmere (tel: (615) 833 1534; e-mail: zoomover@nashvillezoo.org; website: www.nashvillezoo.org) can be reached by bus 12 to Nolensville Road/Harding Place. There are Bengal tigers, cheetahs, a new ‘Elephant Exhibit’, the USA’s largest community-built playground for the children, an ‘Unseen New World’ exhibit – with over 200 reptiles, insects, amphibians and fish – and the old Croft House. This was built in 1810 and now houses a working farm exhibit and a young children’s petting zoo. The zoo is open daily 0900-1600 and admission is US$6 (concessions are available). For a Whole Day Natchez Trace Parkway: No one should visit Nashville without sampling at least a short stretch of this unique drive, which begins about 24km (15 miles) southwest of the city centre. The whole parkway – one of the country’s first interstate highways – runs for 320km (200 miles) to Natchez in Mississippi and was an ancient trading route for early European settlers. Today, with a leisurely 80kph (50mph) speed limit and only recreational traffic, it makes a wonderfully peaceful drive through unspoilt scenery, with many historic landmarks – such as the Meriwether Lewis National Monument, where the early American explorer is buried – along the way. Any viewing point or picnic ground can serve as a turning-back point but visitors should remember to fill up with petrol before they leave Nashville, as there is only one petrol station along the whole road. |
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