Wednesday 7th May Tennessee
UNITED KINGDOM | Wednesday, 7 May 2008 | Views [60] | Comments [4]
We were up early on Wednesday morning as we were going out for the day with John. Sam stayed with Carolyn and Joe as we set off just after 8.00am towards Biltmore in North Carolina. We traveled for about an hour before we stopped for a Denny’s Breakfast, which Paul had been wanting all our holiday. It certainly lived up to its reputation and what is more – Wednesday is 20% off for ‘senior citizens’ (there are some benefits of getting old!!). We also took the opportunity to go to a Bi Lo to stock up on our wine, which we could not buy in Tennessee yesterday.
We arrived at the Biltmore House grounds and purchased our tickets for the House with an audio tour, the Gardens and the Winery. The six dollars extra which we paid for the audio tour proved to be invaluable as they gave us all the extra details, which you cannot get from just walking round and reading the brochures. We traveled along the magnificent woodland road towards the house and parked the car. Our first view of the house took our breath away. It is an enormous, magnificent house which John told us had been used in the film ‘Hannibal’. We entered the main door and found the place where we picked up our cassettes and earphones for the audio tour.
The house was opened in 1895, having been commissioned by George Washington Vanderbilt. His family is still in residence there and his grandson William Cecil now owns and runs Biltmore. He has undertaken many restoration projects to ensure the preservation of this national treasure.
Our tour began on the ground floor visiting many of the magnificently furnished reception rooms, we then went to the first floor where the two bedrooms of Mr and Mrs Vanderbilt are displayed with their original furnishings fully restored. On the third floor are many of the guest bedrooms and bathrooms, every guest bedroom had its own ‘bathroom’ with a toilet and bath, but no washbasin as there was originally no running water. These, and the guest sitting rooms have been fully restored to their original beauty. The forth floor houses many of the servants’ bedrooms and servants’ hall. Also we saw the Architectural Model Room housing a model of the house, and the observatory. It was then down to the basement which held many surprises for us – The Halloween Room has scenes painted on the walls by some house guests many years ago, there is a two lane bowling alley, installed in 1895, a swimming pool which boasts underwater lighting and a gymnasium containing what was once state of the art fitness equipment. Also in the basement are the pantries for keeping all the food in, the servants’ dining room, sitting room and work room and the laundry room containing a belt driven barrel washing machine, spinner and hanging area for drying clothes.
We toured the magnificent gardens including the shrub garden, where the azaleas were very colourful, the walled garden, where the pansies were beautiful and the Conservatory with both hot and cold areas. The orchids were wonderful.
It was then on to the Biltmore Winery where we saw a film introducing the art of winemaking. It was then on to the bottling area and the wine cellars. These were followed by a wine tasting session which was very enjoyable. We have now sampled wines from three different regions in the USA – Nappa Valley, Texas and North Carolina. They have all been very good but we feel that the Californian wines take a lot of beating. We finished with a visit to the shop with a few more treats to taste. Please look at the web site you will be amazed www.biltmore.com
Our journey home soon passed and we crossed the State Line with our wine without any problems!!! We were greeted by Joe, Carolyn and Sam with the news that they had had a good day and had been swimming and to a play park.
We had a swim and hot tub at the Leisure Center in the complex before heading off to The Outback Steakhouse nearby for a good steak meal which was enjoyed by everyone. See www.outback.com
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