Biltmore Estates –
Asheville, NC
We are watching weather and heading north slowly but surely, still warm, but nowhere near 86 degree weather the day before in Savannah.
We were told by several
people that this was a must see. Since
we had lots of time heading north and keeping nice weather, we stopped in
Asheville for a couple of days, toured the grounds and visited around the town.
The Estate is 8,000 acres
owned by the Vanderbilt’s and was built in 1892. We did a tour of the actual house that was
amazing, it is four stories and they have renovated quite a bit of it. We were not allowed to take any pictures
inside but it was really amazing, the fact that they had indoor plumbing and a
large swimming pool, is amazing. See
website for more of the history.
Currently, they have
“Biltmore Blooms” happening, which tells you when the best time for viewing flower
and we hit it just great as the spring flowers are all in bloom, as there
gardens are gorgeous. They have their
tulips blooming in every colour imaginable and the azaleas are starting to
bloom. It have so many pictures, don’t
know what to post, so will do the ones I like best (that is always the problem
when travelling, I have been taking so many pictures in the last two years, it
must be filling up the computer). We took two days to do this as a lot of
walking and climbing in house as well as on estate.
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Gargoyles |
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| Exterior |
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| Wall of "Walled garden" |
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| View from south wing |
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| Azaleas |
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| Azalea with butterly |
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| Rose garden |
The second day we went back
and did a tour of another part of the estate which was Antler Hill and
Winery. This section had the barn and
several buildings with the history of Vanderbilt’s as well. We stopped for
lunch at Cedric’s which was recommended by one of the fellows when we were in
Florida. We did a wine tasting at the
winery and it was different that most others, they did not have a limit; there
was a list of 20 wines and we could have tasted them all. (a bit much even for
us). I did a separate tasting they had
of sparkling wines which there was a charge for, but the flutes were nearly
full and price was reasonable. Ken got
to have a Cedric’s pale ale (Cedric was the Vanderbilt’s St. Bernard).
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| Entrance |
We did a tour around the
town and then headed back to rig to set up for leaving the next day.
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