Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Biltmore House

Janet and I decided to visit the Biltmore Estate this morning and Manuel and George decided to stay home.  Manuel cooked breakfast before we started our day.   It was a good migas breakfast.  Thank you!

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The Biltmore Estate is just a couple of miles from the park.  We are about to enter the Biltmore Estate.

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We now have our tickets....set to go!

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The drive around this 125,000 acre estate is gorgeous.

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We rode the shuttle up the mountain to The Biltmore House which was built in 1895.  This historical landmark is the largest private residence in America to this day.

As we came up the Appalachia Mountain, this is what we saw....just amazingly beautiful.  George Vanderbilt, age 33, was unmarried when he built the house.

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This is a 250 room house with 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, 3 kitchens, an indoor pool, indoor bowling alley, and much, much more.  It sits on 125,000 beautiful acres.

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Pictures were not allowed inside the home which was a really bad thing for me.  I obeyed!

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One of the entrances to the home....

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Beautiful scenery from one of the windows....you can see for miles and miles, even though it is drizzling out.

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This is the back porch of the house.

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Pictures taken through the window screens.   I asked if I could take these pictures before I took them.

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The gorgeous view from another window.

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The pond on the right.

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This is a gorgeous courtyard.  The colors of the flowers are just gorgeous.

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This is a driveway....

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The house is just a few feet from the horse stables which are on the right.

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Yes, these are the horse stables which now house the Stable Cafe.  It has the original 12,000 sq.ft. of space.

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The carriages would drive up to the arched portal.  This is the back of the house, a look from the stables.

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It rained all day but since we were inside of the house, it was okay.

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These two lions are at the entrance of the house.

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The main entrance to the home.  It has another arched portal.

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A look from the entrance window.

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and another.

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  Note the cross, mid-picture below.                     A close up...

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One of the two front iron doors....

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A look out from the front door.

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The front yard....

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The front door entrance...

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The beautiful architecture.

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Waiting for the shuttle after several hours in the House.

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A look back at the Biltmore House.   This has been a wonderful tour.

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The shuttle drops us off at our car and despite the rain we drove many miles on this beautiful acreage.

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This is a huge home and do not know who lives here but we gathered is must be an employee.  The Gardner's home will be seen later.

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The French Broad River runs all along the estate.

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More to come.....had bunches and bunches of pictures.

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