Atlanta – Just Coca Cola’s City or More?

Atlanta – the South’s true capital, home of Martin Luther King and CNN, host of the Olympic Games 96 and most importantly the city where Coca Cola comes from. What makes this city, what can I see and why should I visit?

Coca Cola Museum: World of Coca Cola Atlanta

The Coke Museum is in Atlanta’s Downtown, close to the Olympic Park. It’s not cheap, they charge 16 dollars. The square in front of the museum is called Pemberton Place, named after the inventor of Coca Cola. You enter in groups. In the first room, you have to wait a bit until the group is big enough. This room shows some Coca Cola decorations. A tour guides leads everyone to a second room full of kitsch and many Coca Cola Stories are told. Only after listening to this lecture, you get to move freely and independently in the museum.

A central room called “the lobby” connects various other rooms. There are exhibits about how the soda was developed (Pharmacist John Pemberton invented it), a cinema with an endless stream of Coke ads, an exhibit that shows how bottles are filled and an extra room than only deals with the question what Coke’s secret formula is (of course, not telling it). There is a Coca Cola Polar Bear in the lobby. That is where all children gather. Cheesy things about Coca Cola are everywhere, loads of old and new merchandise. So far, so good. Until this point, something you can do but don’t really need to. To me, the Tasting Room made it. It’s a room full of these typical Soda taping systems. You can try any soda worldwide, including sub-brands like Fanta, Sprite, etc. That is indeed something! You can drink as much as you want, the only limit is the amount of sweet sugary soda that you are able to process and digest.

These taping system are organized in groups of continents. All sodas from Africa were extremely sweet, too sweet for me. But quite interesting to try that. The German sodas were Mezzo-Mix (to non-German a mix of Coke and Fanta) and Bonaqua-Lemon. The Indian soda was Mazaa (a viscous Mango juice). Did you know that Mezzo-Mix is only available in Germany, made for the German market? I didn’t. I liked the tasting, I wanted to try at least a sip of everything. But that did not work, in the end it was a bit too much. It was only then when I realized how different these Coca Cola products are in every country.

At the exit you can take a sample glass bottle of Coke. You exit through a big gift shop with all kinds of Coca Cola stuff (clothes, key chains, statues, etc.). Nice to watch but a little expensive. None of us bought anything.

The Coca Cola Museum is good if you like these different sodas. Everything else is nice, of course done accurately and provides quite some information. But it can always be shortened to “Coca Cola is great”. After the third room, I was thinking: ok, I know it, Coke is great and has changed the world. On their website, Coke says you need 2 hours to do the museum. I think that is right, you don’t need more time. I don’t suggest not doing the museum but don’t expect too much for your 16 dollars.

Georgia Aquarium

Right opposite of the Coca Cola Museum is the Georgia Aquarium. More than 500 species can be seen here, big, small, mammals, reptiles and fish. The Aquarium has several rooms but only two are really outstanding: Ocean Voyager and Pacific Cold Water Quest.

Whale Sharks, Sea Turtles and Manta Rays: Ocean Voyager

Ocean Voyager is a huge aquarium full of fish, mammals in particular whale sharks and sea turtles. If you follow the regular route (easy, just follow the crowds) you walk through a glass tunnel and see animals right next to you and on top of you. Just wait a little bit and you will most likely see a turtle or a whale shark swimming by. Following the exhibit, you walk by several smaller and bigger windows. In the end, you reach a kind of exhibit room with huge panoramic windows. This is where s little performance is done. If you think about Sea World and their circus shows, you are wrong. That’s not what they do, it’s much more relaxed.

An employee clears the space in front of the window. That takes a while but when everyone is finally in the back, you see a clear window for the first time and can finally take a pic with no one on it. At this point you already see an incredible amount of different water animals. They give all kinds of information about these animals. In a second step, three divers dive into the aquarium. One diver has a mike and is audible in the room. He answers questions from the audience. The divers’ bubbles attract many animals, now you can see easily how many animals live in that water tank. Moreover, I only realized the sheer size of some fish in comparison to these divers. The animals don’t seem stressed of freaked out, there are no shows and performances.

Georgia Pacific Cold Water Quest: Penguins and Beluga Whales

I second thing I remember are the penguins. You can stand in front of their compound and see them through a glass window only a few yards away. But there is also a little additional trick: you can crawl in a small tunnel (kind of under the compound) and look through a cylinder. The cylinder is really only big enough for one head and has very thick plastic glass. You don’t disturb or upset the penguins but it still feels like a penguin is standing right next to your head.

The penguin compound is part of the Georgia Pacific Cold Water Quest which also has otters, beluga whales and more polar residents.

More Water Tanks

There is a second aquarium with many colorful fresh-water fish from tropical regions (including clown fish, seahorse, etc.). There is also a dolphin tank and just recently sea lions. Dolphins show little tricks but no circus show like sea world.

Controversies and Issues

When you are in general against keeping animals in captivity, you will say it’s not possible to keep these big water animals adequately and appropriate to their needs. Georgia Aquarium has had some problems with beluga whales dying. You can take this as a proof their life in captivity is not good.

We were there anyways and supported the Aquarium. I’m not feeling guilty because of that. They do at lot for their animals; the polar region for example is entirely closed to maintain a cold surrounding. These animals don’t sweat in Atlanta’s heat. The dolphins barely perform at all they just jump out of the water two or three times. Their trainers stay out of the water. The glass is very thick, knocking would not reach the animals (the windows are double windows with empty room in between them). The cylinder in the penguin area does not bother the animals; everyone still has enough distance to the animals. There is no circus, no tricks and no music. They talk a lot about environmental protection and conserving species.

The big panorama window shows how peaceful and resting in itself this underwater world is. The divers don’t disturb the animals, nature has divers as well and moreover water traffic. This world would remain invisible to most average people. Only divers can experience this world, but these aquariums reach more people and also children. If people cannot see this word, they cannot develop a conscience to protect it. We need aquariums for that. They can only try to keep these animals as good as possible; there is no perfect way to do it.

I know, many people have very different arguments and very different opinions and strongly oppose any way to keep animals in captivity. You need to decide yourself if Georgia Aquarium is the right thing for you. I was there and I’m glad I was.

Some Advice

We were there in winter, in low season, on a Monday morning. Even then, it was already crowded: many people, screaming children, and hullabaloo. If you cannot see anything in the windows, because there are so many people in front of you, it’s probably not that nice any more. If possible, go there early in the morning or in the evening, definitely not when everyone else is there. Another thing is: they charge 50 dollars per person. That’s really expensive, too expensive.

CNN Studio Tour

The CNN headquarters is only a few meters from Coca Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. You can do a tour to the world of news. The fee is 16 dollars and the tour goes one time through the building.

The CNN skyscraper is open to public right at the entrance you can book the CNN Studio Tour. Lonely Planet does not like this tour, they say don’t expect much. But I liked it! You take the longest free-standing escalator in the world (and it’s a really steep climb!). You see a replica of a TV studio. Here they show how news is made, how a teleprompter works and how the footage is made. They shortly play the director’s audio comments from the current show. The next thing you see is a weather map and you see how the weather forecast is made. You walk by a TV studio where a live show is about to start. I waited a bit and really saw the host who was doing a live broadcast. All the cameras and dollies usually remain invisible. The last thing is a gallery where you walk and see the newsroom which is the editors’ open plan office. All the editors sit at their tables, many of them have signs that say “CNN Tour tweet me”.

There are some special tours and VIP tours as well. But I cannot say anything about these. The tour was interesting and we could walk a bit in the CNN building. (Even though there is a security guy in every corner and at every door to make sure you don’t take the wrong way.).

Back in the lobby, you find the compulsory gift shop full of CNN stuff and a Food Court which is open to public. These food courts mean there are many different restaurants with takeaway food and beverages. When you travel in a group, these places are good to make sure everyone finds the right thing. Tables and Chairs in the middle of the room. CNN also has public toilets. These might come in handy after the Coca Cola tasting 😉

Merriott Hotel and Westin Tower

Two things in Atlanta that are for free are the Marriott Hotel and the Westin Tower. The Marriott Hotel has a very impressive lobby, more like an atrium with very unusual architecture. Many scenes from “The Hunger Games” were shot here (when the protagonists are in the capital). If you are free from giddiness and don’t mind heights, you can take the elevator up. I don’t like heights but I did it anyways, quite exhausting I have to say. I have never felt that dizzy looking down. It has to be the very asymmetrical structure of the building.

The Westin Tower is remarkably higher. The Westin Hotel has a tower; its elevator is free of charge. There is a bar on top and you can drink something and enjoy the view. The dizzymaking Marriot Hotel does not even have half the size and looks really tiny from Westin Tower. I would always recommend Westin Tower; its 360 degrees view is absolutely stunning.

Right next to Westin Tower is the Peachtree Center, the bridges that connect the upstairs floors are easily visible. Underground Atlanta, a shopping center below ground, is here as well. Underground Atlanta has clubs, bars, shops and restaurants. We only walked there shortly. You can visit it, but you don’t need to.

Olympic Park

The Olympic Park in Atlanta’s Downtown is quite nice. In November, they already had their Christmas decorations everywhere. In the South, this seems to be very important at Christmas.

I also recommend a little walking tour in downtown to see all the skyscrapers.

How to Combine Things

The Coca Cola Museum, CNN and the Georgia Aquarium are very close. Right next to the Coca Cola Museum is a Center for Civil and Human Rights. We did not have enough time to do that, also we missed all the Martin Luther King Sights (but we did a very nice Museum about Freeing Slaves in Memphis, take a look here). You can walk to any of these places.
Downtown is not far. Westin Hotel, Marriott Hotel and Underground Atlanta are all in walking distance. We did all of this in 2 days; we spent the third day watching football (see Football in Atlanta).

If I ever come back to Atlanta, I would do the Center for Civil and Human Rights, King Center and the Martin Luther King birthplace. Both are a little outside, though.

Trivia

Many streets and center in Atlanta are called Peachtree. Georgia, the state, is called Peachtree State. You need to pay attention to not get confused with addresses and places.