Biltmore

From the wilderness yesterday to order and decadence today. I spent my morning at Biltmore Estate, Old Man Vanderbilt's mountain shack. With a mere 250 rooms this is America's largest home (and was only the holiday house). The mansion is a French Chateau built in 1895 and is still owned by the Vanderbilt descendants but used only for tourism nowadays.

The gardens were designed by the same fellow who did New York's Central Park and there are both formal areas and woodland (so the gentlemen could do a spot of hunting I presume). Below you can see the Bass Pond, the walled tulip garden and a view of the mountains through the wisteria.

The estate also has a winery, farm and village (for the sale of tourist paraphernalia). Some of the wines were quite pleasant and apparently this is the most visited winery in the country.

Just beside the estate is Biltmore Village, full of craft and antique shops and cute cafes and eateries. I also explored downtown Asheville which is more of the same with some organic food markets thrown in the mix.

I got a bit snap-happy today but then the subjects were pretty stunning and a picture here does say a thousand words!

Asheville

I am sitting by the fire in Asheville, North Carolina. The Great Smoky Mountains stand blue and funnily enough, smokey, in the distance. Spring has only just begun here as it is much cooler than other parts of the Carolinas.

I arrived around lunchtime and then thought to take a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. www.blueridgeparkway.org/ (I put this here to remind myself in the future I would like to cycle some of this area.) This is a famous American roadway constructed during the Great Depression to create jobs and stretches from just south of here up to Shenendoah National Park. Unfortunately for me the southbound route is closed due to rock slides so I tried to take a detour and got myself hopelessly lost. But Fortuna was smiling because I found myself in a mountain village called Luck, and then another, Hope and finally, Trust. Yes I am for real! So with a little bit of luck, hope and trust I made my way to the Pisgah National Forest where I spent an enjoyable afternoon viewing waterfalls along a mountain stream and then at 4.30 decided I needed some exercise after a day in the car so started on the Looking Glass Trail, a 6.4mile trail to the peak of an exposed granite rockface, reminiscent of Girraween NP. Unfortunately for me 3.2miles of the trail are straight up and up and up. It's funny how miles suddenly start to seem much, much longer than kilometres on a vertical slope! So my bit of exercise became a race against the sun. I'm proud to say that a suggested 31/2hour hike (I checked this afterwards) took me only 2hours and I suspect some sore leg muscles tomorrow!

Columbia

Ferguson home
As Luke is visiting his hometown we have been visiting his favourite haunts. This has continued my education in American food, dining on buffalo wings covered in every conceivable sauce, chilli dogs and homemade southern delights like Jumbalaya which is a yummy cajun version of a paella.

Yesterday we went to the Columbia zoo and botanic gardens which sit on the banks of the river. It is a reasonable zoo with a good reptile sectionand a couple of grizzlies. The botanic gardens are landscaped for a small but pretty section and then grow into a forest by the river with walking trails which was a pleasant way to spend a spring afternoon.

Springtime Charleston

My return to Charleston to see the effects of springtime was beautiful. I took a historic tour which views many of the old houses from the Gone With The Wind era. Most of these houses have small courtyard gardens or balconies and window boxes overflowing with spring blooms. Everywhere you look there are picture-postcard scenes.

Another of Charleston's attractions is Market Street where the centre of the street is dedicated entirely to selling crafts and nick-nacks. I also visited a house that was used as a slave mart and is now a museum which added a realness to the evil of the trade. The day was finished off with a jaunt through the aquarium which has an albino alligator as it's star exhibit as well as a bald eagle (odd for an aquarium? but a first for me).

Wilmington

It was Azalea Festival time in Wilmington, North Carolina. I spent a few days with Peter Ferguson who has an apartment in the downtown area. Wilmington downtown is a pretty little historic town with beautiful azalea and wisteria filled gardens at this time of the year.

One day was spent at the beaches around Cape Fear but the water was still a bit chilly for lil ol' me. We also took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the historic area of town as well as enjoying much of this area on foot. Due to the festival, many homes were open to visitors so wandering around was very pleasant.

One evening was taken up with a ghost pub crawl with the guide, a crazy, drunk, old fella with a rather dark side, taking us to all the underground watering holes where sinister happenings have occurred. I'm not sure I believe all the stories (Jack the Ripper is supposed to have spent much time in Wilmington?) but it made for an entertaining evening.

The festival also involved a parade with far too many and too young beauty queens and marching cadets carrying rifles at the age of 12. There was also lots and lots and lots of American Deep Fried Goodness available for consumption. My favourites are "Bloomin' Onions"- onions opened up into a flower shape, battered and deep fried and "Funnel Cake"- a plate full of deep fried dough covered with icing sugar.

A pleasant afternoon was spent at the home of some friends of Peters with a keg of beer, games of beer-pong and a bar-b-que.

I have been very lucky with weather lately (about time!) and I find it incredible how quickly winter has turned into spring. I am now back with George and Chris in Columbia and the neighbourhood is almost unrecognisable with bright, green leaves and spring flowers.

More Manhattan

My stay in NYC has come to an end which is going to be a blessing for my pocketbook and waistline but is a shame as the city is a very fun and exciting place to be. Over the Easter weekend, Bron had some time off work so I had a private tour guide for a few days.

Friday we were good little girls and went to a Methodist service which I found almost theatrical with it's mood pipe organ and cross-carrying re-enactments. The weather was wonderful so we spent plenty of time walking the streets and enjoying the start of spring. Saturday we went to the top of the Rockefeller Building where there are great views of Central Park to the north and the Empire State to the south. The afternoon was again spent taking in some sunshine on a friend's rooftop followed by a cultural evening when Bron went to see La Traviata at the opera house and I went with another girl to see a friend of hers in a play. This guy is studying Latin at Columbia University and the Latin department had teamed up with the Drama department to perform a Roman play that had been translated into a current day Brooklyn redlight district setting and also set to music. The highlight was a rap in latin performed by hookers and pimps. After the theater we met up with Bron and Andrew (who I stayed with in DC) and his brother, Luke for some NY bar action and didn't make it to bed until 4am. Sunday started with a trip to a Catholic service which left me feeling fairly unchristian as the crowds were huge and sacreligious. When I went up to get communion some cheeky bastard stole my seat - may lightning strike him down! Good humour soon returned with a big Easter afternoon brunch with 20 of Bron's friends followed by a nanna nap and then dinner at Pete's Tavern (the place Miranda and Steve get engaged over a beer in Sex and the City). Monday, after breakfast at Balthazar, we were back to being real tourists and went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Lady Liberty is big and green and I have to say a bit pudgy but she gets a magnificent veiw of Manhattan. Ellis Island is a deserted immigration processing area that has been turned into a very interesting museum. If you have rellies who emigrated to the USA, chances are they passed through Ellis Island. Monday night dinner was possibly the world's best pork buns at Bron's local asian joint.

On Tuesday morning I packed my bags, folded up the couch and headed back to DC where the weather is warmer and the spring in full swing. I did a vehicle change and continued on to Wilmington, North Carolina where new adventures await.

Upstate

Interesting weather continues to plague me. Monday was the wettest March day on record in this area, but this was short lived as Tuesday took the throne 24 hours later. That makes it the wettest March ever. But then on Wednesday the sun came out and today was perfect weather. The easter weekend is also predicted to be warm and sunny all round so I shan't complain too loudly!

My sun shone down on Lancaster county in Pennsylvania which has one of the largest Amish populations in the world. While I'm not about to donn the prayer cap and pledge my alliegance there is a beautiful simplicity and sense of logic and peace to the way these people live. They have as little to do with the outside world as possible so no phones, TV, electricity or vehicles. They are farmers and live pretty much self-sufficiently, making all their own foods from bread to cheese, preserves and chocolate all without the use of chemicals or preservatives. The area has a rustic feel with lots of farmer's markets and craft shops, the specialties being patchwork quilts and handmade furniture with people clopping by in horse-drawn buggies. The word that immediately springs to mind in 'quaint' but there is a purpose to everything that is done and I have to say I respect them for holding strong to their values.

From Lancaster I headed northwest through the rolling farmland of Pennsylvania to the Delaware River which I then followed through miles and miles of trees towards the Catskills in New York State. Then I drove through miles and miles of trees, changing from the Delaware to the Hudson River. Because of the recent rains the rivers were in flood and in many places had broken their banks. So the descriptive words for the area are 'trees and water, water and trees'.

Some way along the Hudson I stumbled on the Vanderbilt and Roosevelt mansions. Actually that's not true, the buildings and grounds are so ludicrously large that they loom up out of the trees and water, making stumbling upon them impossible. It's quite a contrast from the Amish homes further south.

Now I'm back in the city and looking forward to easter in the sunshine!