wickesy
<font color=royalblue>Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love y
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2006
On the agenda today was a visit to Biltmore followed by the Tom Jones concert at 8:00pm. We were up and out by 8:45 and the sat-nav took us a rather interesting route through some back lanes in Hill-billy country, and had to re-route us at one point when I refused to go down what looked like a gravel track.
We got to Biltmore at around 10:30 and when we presented our tickets at the gate we were greeted with Yall have been made aware the concert is cancelled?. Of course we hadnt (although at the time of typing this Im expecting to find an e-mail when I get home) but it was no great problem as we had intended visiting Biltmore anyway and we were told that Guest Services would be able to confirm what was happening about a refund. We carried on up the drive, parked up and made our way up to the house.
Biltmore House is a 250 room mansion built for George Vanderbilt and opened by him on Christmas Eve 1895. It stands amongst 125,000 acres of forest, a 250 acre wooded park and five pleasure gardens and over the years he invited many friends and family to stay with him there, often for weeks at a time. In 1960 the house was opened to the public and today is a major tourist attraction.
We began with a self-guided tour of the house and, whilst impressive, it has to be said that it is very similar, at least to us, as many stately homes in England.
This is the view from the balcony outside the Tapestry Gallery where guests relaxed after their meals.
Once we finished our tour we went into the bakery where Dad had a Muffaletta sandwich (ham, proscuttio and other stuff) while I had a ham and Swiss cheese stuffed croissant and we had a coke each. After lunch we went into the gift shop where we bought a fridge magnet, DVD, polo shirt, Christmas ornament and colour guide book. From there we stopped off at Guest Services who confirmed that everybody had been automatically refunded for the cost of the concert and, as far as possible, they had tried to notify everybody of the cancellation, which was apparently because of a problem with Tom Jones vocal cords.
We then went to have a look at the photo of us that had been taken as we entered the house and although we dont normally buy this sort of thing I liked the look of the background and the frame so we bought it at a cost of $26.95. SusanEllen the invoice for this, together with the $141.57 we spent in the gift shop is on its way to you by FedEx.
I then took a couple of photos of where the concert would have been taking place - hows this for a venue?
We then moved on to walk through some of the gardens
And down to the bass pond
This was a bit further out than we realised so we walked back as far as the shuttle bus stop and got the shuttle back to the main house so I could get a picture
Before walking back to the car. We moved off at 2:00 and it was around 2:25 before we reached the main gate! The main reason for this is that you have to drive round most of the estate to get out because a lot of it is one-way traffic.
Continued
We got to Biltmore at around 10:30 and when we presented our tickets at the gate we were greeted with Yall have been made aware the concert is cancelled?. Of course we hadnt (although at the time of typing this Im expecting to find an e-mail when I get home) but it was no great problem as we had intended visiting Biltmore anyway and we were told that Guest Services would be able to confirm what was happening about a refund. We carried on up the drive, parked up and made our way up to the house.
Biltmore House is a 250 room mansion built for George Vanderbilt and opened by him on Christmas Eve 1895. It stands amongst 125,000 acres of forest, a 250 acre wooded park and five pleasure gardens and over the years he invited many friends and family to stay with him there, often for weeks at a time. In 1960 the house was opened to the public and today is a major tourist attraction.
We began with a self-guided tour of the house and, whilst impressive, it has to be said that it is very similar, at least to us, as many stately homes in England.
This is the view from the balcony outside the Tapestry Gallery where guests relaxed after their meals.
Once we finished our tour we went into the bakery where Dad had a Muffaletta sandwich (ham, proscuttio and other stuff) while I had a ham and Swiss cheese stuffed croissant and we had a coke each. After lunch we went into the gift shop where we bought a fridge magnet, DVD, polo shirt, Christmas ornament and colour guide book. From there we stopped off at Guest Services who confirmed that everybody had been automatically refunded for the cost of the concert and, as far as possible, they had tried to notify everybody of the cancellation, which was apparently because of a problem with Tom Jones vocal cords.
We then went to have a look at the photo of us that had been taken as we entered the house and although we dont normally buy this sort of thing I liked the look of the background and the frame so we bought it at a cost of $26.95. SusanEllen the invoice for this, together with the $141.57 we spent in the gift shop is on its way to you by FedEx.
I then took a couple of photos of where the concert would have been taking place - hows this for a venue?
We then moved on to walk through some of the gardens
And down to the bass pond
This was a bit further out than we realised so we walked back as far as the shuttle bus stop and got the shuttle back to the main house so I could get a picture
Before walking back to the car. We moved off at 2:00 and it was around 2:25 before we reached the main gate! The main reason for this is that you have to drive round most of the estate to get out because a lot of it is one-way traffic.
Continued
)
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Personally I think he heard Kenny Rogers was coming down and he got scared. 
