More Smoky Mountains

The rest of our holiday was further hiking. Including the Tallulah Gorge. You cannot actually go to the bottom (or rather you can but they only allow 100 people a day to do so), but the views (and bridges) are impressive enough. They certainly involved enough climbing. As I was going down and a similarly rotund American was gasping past me going up, I asked him how it was. "On a scale of 1 to 10, this sucks 11" he replied

This is really quite tiring as a climb.

 Well that was the Gorge. Our last hike of the holiday actually led to the start of the famous Appalachian Trail. It was a really nice forest walk, up past a tall waterfall. A nice end to a genuinely wonderful holiday. A great combination of lovely cities, history, culture and good food, with striking scenery and a lot of exercise. And the great company of Thibault. Without whom none of this would be possible. He is after all the driver and planner. I just supply the charm (I pretend).

A lot of steps up past the waterfall. Over 400

And so finally back at Atalanta to fly home. A very modern city. We finished with an Italian meal at a very classy restaurant. It is always nice to sign off these trips with a signature meal. Replacing the calories I lost during the day!