Viking Cruises

18 | Viking Explorer Society News 3 NEW ORLEANS, USA Music fills the streets of this prominent Louisiana city, known as the birthplace of jazz. Music and history are deeply intertwined in New Orleans, and both its African heritage and the wave of immigrants that landed here have greatly inspired how music has evolved. "The Big Easy" is best known for its Mardi Gras celebration—a colourful brigade of floats and brass bands. This humming city has half a dozen nicknames and a reputation for a good time, and there is so much to discover beyond Mardi Gras, jazz bars and Creole cooking. Many of the city's highlights are within walking or cycling distance as the flat geography makes it an ideal way to tour the neighbourhoods. Everyone makes a beeline for the historic French Quarter, home of the most iconic buildings and streets, as well as Jackson Square: a park and National Historic Landmark celebrating the site of the Louisiana Purchase. Some of the city's finest hotels and restaurants are here. Visit Bourbon Street in the day, and at night head for neighbouring Royal Street to get a sense of that famous late-night cocktail jazzy vibe—catch a gig at Preservation Hall—or stroll to Frenchmen Street, packed with bars and late- night eateries, where the music spills out onto the sidewalks. 4 LISBON, PORTUGAL Any Lisboner will tell you that one of the city's must-do experiences is to wander among the cobblestone alleyways, slip inside a tasca (tavern) and listen to Portugal's haunting national soundtrack: fado. Translated as fate, fado is renowned for its deeply expressive and melancholic character. It originated in the early 19th century in Lisbon's Alfama neighborhood and is usually accompanied by a Portuguese 12-string guitar. Each ballad speaks of life, passion and struggle, and evokes the Portuguese emotion of saudade—a longing for something lost. A newer variety of fado performed exclusively by men exists in the city of Coimbra. But Lisbon's scene has always been dominated by women. In an homage to the undisputed queen of fado, Amália Rodrigues, most performers have traditionally cloaked themselves in a black shawl and donned red lipstick before belting out songs of heartache as their voices hover on the edge of a sob. Fado is held in such high regard that UNESCO recognised the art form on its Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2011. Clockwise, from above: A live band on the streets of New Orleans; the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris; the National Opera House in Paris; a fado singer and band, in Portugal

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