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Although many of the attractions in Nashville are tied to the country music industry, there are more to Nashville than tacky country music bars and cheap memorabilia shops.

Tennessee State Capitol

Tennessee Liberty Bell

Nashville is capital of the state of Tennessee. Thus, it is where the State Capitol is located. There is a Liberty Bell replica owned by the state government on the lawns of the Capitol Building.

Centennial Park

The Parthenon

Nashville was founded in 1779 and subsequently incorporated in 1806, making this city more than 200 years old. There are two city parks built to celebrate both the centennial and bi-centennial of Nashville. Of the two, the Centennial Park is more impressive with its replica of the Greek Parthenon.

Impressive marble columns

The Parthenon at dusk

With its tall marble columns and classical architecture style, the Parthenon stands as the centerpiece of the park. It is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens and was built as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897.

The Nashville Rat Patrol

Tall bike

A group of bicyclists was converging besides the Parthenon for a gathering of some sort. I found out they were the Nashville Rat Patrol, an anarchist bicycle gang that rides on modified bikes of all sorts. The group members dressed in a trashy fashion and their rides were modified with salvaged bicycle parts. The emphasis seems to be on the basic functionality of the bike and weirdness of the design. This was an effort by the group to make an anti-consumerist, pro-environmental statement.

Ready…

Tug O’ War!

The group showed off their bikes and continued to carry out some crazy stunts. They tied two bikes together with a long bungee cord and started a bicycle tug of war.

After a few sessions the bungee cord broke and they switched to ‘jousting’ on their bikes instead. I’m not sure what was the point of all that but they sure seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Bunch of crazy Americans.