The Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina

I said I would be posting more photos of this wonderful place. Well, here goes.

We had a late breakfast overlooking the beautiful North Carolina hills. The hotel is in a wonderful spot with 360 degree views of the countryside. We were told the hotel was built about ten years ago, in the style of George Vanderbilt's mansion.

 

One of the advantages of staying at the Inn was that we had free shuttle transport to and from the mansion, which is about two miles from the hotel. It is a vast estate, that was originally 125,000 acres but much of the land was sold back to the state of North Carolina after George Vanderbilt's death.

As we drove to the mansion, I saw this maple turning a beautiful red.

Our first view of the mansion after we arrived in the shuttle.

We entered the house to take the guided audio tour, which goes through the main rooms of the house, as well as some of the bedrooms and the servants quarters. There are 33 bedrooms and 250 rooms in all!!

The tour, which took about an hour and half, was well worthwhile. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos inside the house, so it is not easy trying to describe how vast and impressive the interior of the mansion is. For example, the banquet hall is 70 feet in height! No expense was spared in building the house, which took ten years to construct and was completed in 1895. It is the largest house in the US and is still privately owned by George Vanderbilt's grandson, William Cecil Jr.

The huge foundation walls at the rear of the house.

Looking towards the southern elevation of the house, across the south terrace.

The house with a wonderful wisteria-clad pergola in the foreground.

This giant purple-leaved European Beech tree was one of the many planted at the end of the 19th century.

We walked through the gardens into the beautiful walled garden with its very colourful flower beds and borders.

A giant hibiscus flower, which was about six inches across.

This flower bed had just been planted and was based upon a pattern of a Tiffany  lamp.

Wonderful borders.

 

Next, we walked back to the house to look at the Italian Garden with its three pools, each one filled with different varieties of water lily.

 

I liked these giant floating lilies.

One of the ponds was teaming with Koi carp.

We then walked back to the house and I took this final photo. I felt it was a fitting way to end a wonderful visit and one we would both thoroughly recommend to anyone who is thinking of visiting North Carolina. George Vanderbilt has left a truly remarkable legacy.

We took the shuttle back to the hotel and, later on in the afternoon, we drove down into Asheville to try and find the art deco buildings the town is famous for.

The drive only took us about twenty minutes and we parked in the centre and were immediately impressed by some wonderful art deco architecture. In central Pack Square are two large buildings which turned out to be the Buncombe County Court House, on the left in the photo below, and the amazing City Hall.

In front of the City Hall was a fountain through which children were running and trying to dodge the jets of water that were randomly squirting into the air. It was very enjoyable to watch them having so much fun.

Close up of the top of City Hall with its pink and green tiled roof.

Just in front of the County Court House was a memorial to the Veterans of North Carolina. In the centre of the memorial was a statue of a seated woman holding a book in her hands. The significance of the lady escaped me.

The third major art deco building on the edge of Pack Square is the extraordinary Jackson skyscraper. Built in 1923 on an incredibly small 27ft x 60ft plot, it has an upper section that looks like a church tower which has been planted on top of the building.

A close-up of the extraordinary top section of this art deco skyscraper.

A rather beautiful fountain where the water flowed over a smooth circular stone, from the centre outwards and then to the ground.

As we walked through the centre of Asheville, we saw a legacy from the past, an FW Woolworth store, with a lovely art deco facade.

A close-up of the Woolworth facade.

Another impressive art deco building in the centre of Asheville.

We had a lovely meal in a Spanish restaurant before driving back to our hotel. What a surprise Asheville has turned out be. None of us ever expected that this North Carolina town would have so much to offer. Yet another place we would like to come back to.

After returning to the hotel, we went out on to the terrace and saw a new moon in the beautiful evening light above the hills. What a perfect way to end an incredible day.

Lynchburg to Asheville, North Carolina

When we arrived last night in Lynchburg, I thought the car was having problems with fuel as the rear of the car was covered in black soot from diesel exhaust. I have an engine booster on the car which is an electronic gadget that increases performance. This has two settings, low boost and high boost. It suddenly occurred to me that it was on high boost, so I called up Chris in the UK, who had fitted the booster several years ago, to ask him. The High/Low switch is not clear and it turned out I had been on high boost all the time, using up more fuel than I needed to!!

We left the hotel at around 9am and drove out of Lynchburg to find a gas station with diesel. In the States, I think only one in five stations have diesel.

On our way to find gas on an overcast morning with low cloud.

We found a gas station with diesel and I spent nearly fifteen minutes filling the car to the limit. US pumps have larger nozzles than in the UK and, as a result, it's not possible to fill my car at full speed, as the pump simply cuts out. So, it was a long slow fill!

Finally, we were on our way for a long drive of over 500kms to Asheville, North Carolina. We could have taken the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Asheville, but at a restricted speed of 45mph all along the Parkway, it would have taken us about 12 hours!. Instead, we headed on good roads to a town called Roanoke where we joined Interstate 81. As soon as we were on the freeway we saw flashing signs saying the freeway was closed due to blasting. We then made the decision of the day. We turned off on to back roads about ten miles before the road closure. It was a good road running alongside the Blue Ridge Mountains and with the weather greatly improved, we made good progress. We reached the 81, past the blasting, and as we drove south we saw the most incredible traffic jam on the northern carriageway. It went on for miles! With the traffic just as heavy going south, we knew we had avoided a similar jam.

Our drive now took us due south and across some magnificent Virginian countryside. The leaves on some of the trees are starting to turn, but we are about two weeks too early to see the true fall colours. Still, we took some photos and hopefully they show the autumn hues.

We continued our drive on Highway 70 until we turned up into the mountains to rejoin the Blue Ridge Parkway near the town of Boone, named after Daniel Boone, the famous American pioneer. The drive was through the most wonderful green countryside, with virtually no traffic. At one point we went past fields full of Christmas trees. They ran in perfect rows over the crests of the hills by the road.

 

More trees turning colour as we neared the Blue Ridge Parkway. Apologies for the smudges, which are from squashed bugs on the windscreen.

We drove past this field of wild flowers in front of a school. The splash of colour reminded us of the wild flowers we had seen in Namaqualand, South Africa on our African drive in 2005. Click on the link to that drive and you will find similar photos of wild flowers.

We crossed from Virginia into our thirteenth state of the drive, North Carolina.

 Returning to the Parkway near the town of Boone, with a hundred and fifty kilometres to go to Asheville.

As we drove on to the Ridge, we saw this sign about the Eastern Continental Divide.

Compared to yesterday's poor weather on the Parkway, today's was absolutely perfect. You could see for miles across the mountains from either side of the road. There are viewpoints all along the Parkway and here are three, from the dozens of photos we took, as we continued our drive.

 

The road goes through various memorial parks, this one was named after Moses H Cone. The estate was donated to the State in 1950. The wonderful white wooden mansion house is now used as a park craft shop.

 

Another great view from one of the elevated sections of the Parkway.

 Soon after leaving the Moses H Cone house, we became stuck in road resurfacing works and so decided to turn off and drive parallel to the Ridge and then return for the last 60 or so kilometres into Asheville.

It was a great decision to make as the road back to the ridge was a twisty winding mountain pass, a lovely drive which at one point went alongside a lake created by this dam that was pouring water down its face.

We reached the Parkway once again and now we were driving at over 5,000 feet, the highest section of the road we had been on. At several points I noticed that the distance we had driven was the same as our altitude! It's the first time I have ever seen that. Anyway, try as we might, we never actually were able to photograph the moment on the Garmin when the two figures were the same. This is as near as we came!

About five kilometres from the Asheville turnoff, we stopped at the craft centre. My cousin, Basil and his wife Margaret, had been to the craft centre and told us it was well worth visiting.

Wendy entering the centre where we spent a very enjoyable half an hour and managed to buy some gifts for the family.

We left the centre and drove the remaining few kilometres to our hotel, The Inn on Biltmore Estate.