Arriving pretty late in the day, we just had time to check in and then head to Max Lager's next door for a beer sampler and some food, before heading back to the room to catch up on admin.
The next day we awoke to English-looking skies and pondered what to do. I wouldn't say there is a massive amount of stuff to do in this massive city, and it isn't the safest place in the world to go wandering around looking like a tourist.
The Hyatt Place we are in has a great service whereby you can ask for a free shuttle to take you anywhere in a 3-mile radius. So transport wasn't an issue.
Top attractions included the #1 aquarium in the US (pricey, and not really a unique attraction in our book), Martin Luther King and civil rights attractions (already did a lot of that in Memphis), and World of Coca Cola.
I hadn't realised Coke originated in ATL and given that the price was reasonable ($17 pp) we thought why the heck not! Yes, it's a massive money-making corporate, but also the most widely recognised American brand in the world.
WoCC exceeded both Sam and my expectations. There are a number of areas to the attraction including a setup of a bottling factory, a short 4D movie, loads of memorabilia and history, secrecy around what the recipe is, and best of all a huge tasting area for you to try Coke products from all around the world.
We managed to get through about half of the 100+ flavours before both of us started to slip into a sugar-induced coma, so thought it was best to stop.
The skies had cleared so we had a quick wander around the Olympic Centennial Park next door before hailing the shuttle back to the hotel.
After a quick snooze (me) and some video editing (Sam) we discussed where to head for dinner. This is when I made an interesting discovery: not only do Coca Cola have their HQ in Atlanta, but so do Hooters!
I felt it inappropriate to visit one without visiting the other, so it was our duty to head to Hooters for food and beers. Yay!
It was lashing it down outside, so despite only being 2 blocks from the hotel, we once again made use of the free shuttle to get us back to our room.
I never knew Coke started in Atlanta either but it does look as if they don't have a lot in terms of attractions. The tour looked good and it was worth the vid for the pic of Sam in a sugar coma, very funny.
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