Sorry for the late post, last nights tour went on for longer than I thought and I was wiped when I got back.
I got a slow start to the day, eating breakfast at Two Chicks Cafe and hanging around the area around my hotel until about two. After finally venturing out into the French Quarter, I took my time getting to the meeting spot for the five o’clock tour.
I stopped for some delicious praline fudge at Sugar and Spice, and the Cafe Beignet for so.e iced tea and famous beignets.
The tour started at the Supreme Courthouse, and we made our way down the street to our first stop the Pharmacy Museum.
The second pharmacist at this location killed thirty Irish immigrants and was never caught, injecting them with hypodermic needles filled with deadly concoctions, and how people still see the old doctor in the second floor windows, glowering over the streets.
Then we stopped at Jackson Square where the statue of Andrew Jackson celebrates over the city on his horse. Before the statue was built, it was the hanging square, starting with 26 prisoners who protested the Spanish buying New Orleans from the French.
Our next stop was the alley behind St. Louis church, “the most haunted place in New Orleans” according to our guide. People dueled and lost their lives behind the church, in addition to being the final walk of many pirates, giving it the name Pirate Alley.
We stepped onto bourbon street where we heard the story behind the old pirate bar, one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans, rumored to have haunted pirate treasure. Anyone who takes a piece of the building ends up facing a terrible streak of luck until its returned.
Reaching Royal street we were blocked by AMC’s reboot of Interview with a Vampire. Their filming blocked most of the street, but it added a different sort of charm to the tour as the guide explained New Orleans vampires and the famous one that inspired Ann Rice’s book.
We circled the block to another church Marie Laveau went to school. We discussed voodoo and how it was disguised as Christianity, but an entirely separate religion at its peak.
We found ourselves in the middle of filming as we stopped at the most famous haunted spot in New Orleans, the Lalaurie mansion. Hundreds of slaves were tortured to death and buried within the walls.
Owners were usually booted within two years of ownership, but the current owner claims to have broken it, owned since 2010 by Micheal Whalen.
However, he rarely spends time in this property, so who can say for sure? People still refuse to sleep in the mansion, and our tour guide was uncomfortable just standing near it.
With that, our tour came to a close, and I experienced a bit of nightlife on the way back to the hotel. The streets were full of musicians, the bars hopping, and I stopped for pizza before finally arriving back at the hotel.
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