Heading to Ashville to see the Biltmore House.

We spent the day, Thursday the 25th, driving to Ashville, NC where we stayed at the Ashville Bear Creek RV Park.

Sometimes when you try to get a picture of some color, objects get in the way and if you look closely in the mirror you might see someone.

 

Jane, remember the time I told you that without a GPS I would miss so many interesting sites. How did I end up here?

These pictures are the first look we got of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

 

We spent the day, Friday the 26^th, touring the Biltmore House. It was completed in 1895 by George Vanderbilt who was a 35 year old bachelor at the time. He married 3 years later and died in 1924 from complications following an appendectomy. The estate was originally 125,000 acres, but 90,000 acres were sold to the government for a National Forest in the early 1930’s. Now the estate is only 8,000 acres. The Biltmore has 250 rooms and one of the grandest is the dining room.  It has a 7 story vaulted ceiling, a very large pipe organ and a dining table that would seat over 40 guests. No picture taking is allowed inside the house.  Just believe us when we say it is magnificent. This is the largest house in America.

Entering the Biltmore estate.

 

 

Pictures taken along the road driving to the house, remember this is an 8,000 acre estate.  The entrance driveway is 3 miles long with about 11 miles of road winding through the estate.

 

 

Now this is a burl!!

Our first sighting of the Biltmore.  Too bad the sun didn’t come out much today.

 

The stable which is now restaurants and shops. 

The front entrance.

These balconies follow stairways in the house and we think their purpose may have been to has access for washing and maintaining the windows.

A view looking over the property from the back courtyard.

This is the back side of the house.  The small windows on the lowest level were the kitchen, kitchen staff quarters, swimming pool, bowling alley and gymnasium.

This picture was taken from the side courtyard.  This area would be full of plants in the summer.

We took this picture when walking from the courtyard through the gardens to the conservatory.  It is some type of Holly.

The gardens did not have much blooming this early so we went into the Conservatory.  We took photos of some of the flowers in the conservatory. The orchids were especially beautiful.

  

Finally, a picture of the two of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind these windows is the Winter Garden.  It’s too bad indoor pictures weren’t allowed.

More road pictures as we drive out on a different road.

The Bass Pond

 

 

This is looking from our campground towards the mountains.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy