After our down day on Friday, we headed out to explore downtown Knoxville on Saturday. Our first stop was for lunch at a German beer garden called Schulz Brau Brewing Company. It had a nice outdoor seating area and have a great beer selection. They make about a dozen types of beer and have won awards internationally. We had a couple of brats and some spaetzle and a good beer.

Next up was Knoxville’s world’s fair park, where they held the world’s fair in 1982. They have there Sunsphere there which is a 266′ tall sphere you can normally go up in and get a good view of the city. Unfortunately, Covid still rears it’s ugly head and it’s closed for now. There was an art festival with music going on in the park so we strolled around there for a while.

The rest of the day was spent strolling around the town. We saw the Tennessee theater, a movie house built in 1928 and now on the National Register of Historic Places. That was also closed. ☹

Then on to Market Square, a square closed off to car traffic surrounded by bars, restaurants and shops. One sort of interesting spot there was an alley where they encourage people to paint murals on the sides of the buildings. We had a drink on a rooftop bar called the Preservation Pub and enjoyed the views below. We finished off the day at a speakeasy called The Vault, which was a former bank. They had interesting cocktails and a very small but great menu. That capped off our Saturday.