Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville Tennessee

Its kind of funny.  I spent a lot of time in Nashville growing up- but it wasn't until recently that I finally made my way to the Opryland Hotel!

We thought it would be fun to check the place out recently on our trip to Nashville.  The hotel is unbelievable. 

We got to the place fairly early to check out the Ice sculptures (see my previous post).  After that we found our way inside the actual hotel and our jaws dropped!

The place is simply mammoth.  It is huge.  If you haven't been there before- there is a body of water going through the hotel.  Seriously.  You can take a boat ride through the place!

In fact, that is the first thing we did.  We took the boat ride.  That was pretty cool.  We learned that empty Jack Daniels bottles were sent to other communities around the world, along with a request that river water from various locations be sent back in the bottles.  Those water samples were added to the hotel river.  How cool is that?  We also learned that parts of the hotel were build to resemble New Orleans.  Several Presidents have stayed here.  Oh, and it is the largest non-gaming resort in the U.S.

Much of the interior of the hotel reminded me of a massive greenhouse.  With the shopping, the greenery, and the hotel, I would sum up Opryland Hotel as a hotel/mall/park.

After our boat ride, we explored the hotel a bit more.  We went through the shops and the various sections of Opryland Hotel.  We purchased some postcards at one gift shop, and wrote messages to friends on them as we set and drank coffee in a small coffee shop area.  There was a Christmas Craft show going on, and we shopped some in that area too.

In the evening, you could take a carriage ride around the hotel to see the lights.  We had a great carriage pulled by a sweet horse named Red.  We shared our ride with another couple from Akron!  I worked in Akron Ohio for a couple of years, and enjoyed chatting with the other couple about that city.

Since we were just passing through, we did not get a room at the Opryland Hotel, but that is something that we will have to do someday!