Honker down! This is one long post and definitely one that’s probably best grabbing yourself a cup of tea and biscuits (or a cheeky glass of wine) before jumping in.

Ready? Okay – let’s go explore Knoxville together.

Knoxville was the smallest of the 3 cities we planned on visiting in Tennessee and to be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew of certain places I wanted to visit here but I had no clue what the general vibe or feel of the city would be.

Let me just answer this head on – Knoxville may be smaller but it’s such an interesting city that packs a surprising amount of stuff for its relatively smaller size.

>We started off with a visit to the Knoxville Museum of Art – a relatively small but perfectly formed space with views overlooking the city and intriguing art at every turn… including The Tennessean Hotel – our ‘home’ while in Knoxville!

>The museum seems like such an integrated part of the city as locals with their kids pop in for workshops, check out the art and chat over their daily coffees in the café upstairs.

The art is quite diverse too – with sculptures unlike anywhere else we’ve been to (that one – see below – of the top part of a man is just freaky as it moves and changes and you walk around it – there are even fine hairs on it).

>Leaving the gallery, we stopped off to check out a mural just a few blocks away – the Weaving Rainbow Mountain Mural…

>…a colourful little delight in a part of town I probably wouldn’t even have thought to look out for, if not for recommendations on Instagram! (Thanks!!!)

>We then headed into the city in search of lunch – and to take shelter from the rain which started as soon as we left the mural.

Luckily, the rain subsided almost with the same immediacy it started off with and by the time we’d parked – the clouds had already started to part ways.

There’s a side street in Knoxville’s city centre worth checking out, by the way, if you’re into street are – that street’s called Strong Alley.

I’m not sure what the policy is on the art here but it’s down a street you probably wouldn’t think to go down and for the most part is a lot grittier than some of the other street art dotted across town.

>I like a good old ‘outdoor gallery’ so a quick jaunt down this alley was one I just knew I had to do before making our way over to the restaurant for lunch.

>For lunch, we headed over to Stock and Barrel for a good old fashioned fill-your-tummy up lunch. Burger for Lloyd (with a milkshake) and chicken and waffles for me.

>After lunch, we decided to go on a little jaunt around the area – Market Square is probably where you want to head out to for lunch, dinner, drinks…etc when you’re in Knoxville and seeing as the sun was out – it made for the perfect excuse for a lazy mid-afternoon amble through town.

>Somehow, our lazy amble meant that we ended up right in front of the Oliver Hotel – at which point, Lloyd and I remembered a message we’d been sent on Instagram about a speakeasy – Peter Kern Library – that was on the side street next to the hotel. (You could also access it from a hidden door – which looks like a wall – in the hotel).

The plan was originally to pop by the speakeasy later that evening but seeing as we were right there – we figured we might as well pop in for a drink or two!

The speakeasy had literally just opened (I mean this was shortly after lunch time) but this didn’t stop us from jumping right into their cocktails menu.

>Sufficiently libated – the cocktails here are pretty good by the way, even the virgin ones (one of them was a non-alcoholic one for the driver