Olympic Centennial Park

One of the things I knew about Atlanta before my trip there was the fact that it was the host for the Centennial Olympics back in 1996. Personally, the game should have been held in Athens, to mark the 100 years since the first modern games were held, but Atlanta managed to pip through on the last bid. Being a sentimental, it should have been in Greece, but hey, I do not make the rules.

So, I was looking forward to some legacy of the games, but all I got was the Centennial Park, which to be honest was a lot smaller than I imagined it would be. It was also the site for the Olympic bombing which killed two people during the games.

It was a nice grass field with a few monuments surrounding it, but in itself, it was nothing special. But the tiles which made up the footway caught my eye. They all have names of donors written on them, which were mainly people of the city. They must have lent their money to the project and had their names immortalised in the park.

There was also a small fountain made up of the five rings of the Olympics located in the centre of the park. I walked by this every morning from my hotel to the Congress Center.

In the evening, the park was transformed somewhat with the lightings wing erected, celebrating winter and Christmas. Unfortunately they don't get much snow in this part of the US, but the brown leaf from the tree contrasted well with the clear blue sky. It was quite a vista actually with the cool breeze that we had during my stay there. Since the weather is in the mild side, a skating rink was erected at the part of the park near the Georgia Aquarium.

More about my Atlanta trip here.