Opulence in Asheville

Even though it was an overcast and misty day in Asheville, we spent the day exploring the Biltmore Mansion. The mansion was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt, the great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cornelius, known as the Commodore, made his fortune in shipping and then in railroads. When he died, his estate was worth a $100 million dollars, which in today's dollars is worth $39 billion dollars. His son, William, doubled the fortune in ten years. So by the time that George came along, there was plenty of funding available to build the Biltmore Estate.

It took 1,000 laborers, artisans and craftsmen to build the mansion of 250 rooms. The "house" was electrified, had indoor plumbing, and indoor swimming pool and bowling alley. There was a staff of 35 to run the mansion and meet the needs of the family and their many guests.

We had lunch in The Stable restaurant. Our table was in the birthing stall, which crept Mel out, but we had a good lunch nonetheless. It took quite a while to tour the four story mansion and we were glad that we rented the audiophones that explained the details of each room.

When we finished the house tour, we drove to the Conservatory so we could visit the gardens and hot houses with the plants that are nurtured for use in the home. Then, we drove by the winery, stables and angus cattle farms, all a part of the estate. We ended our tour of the grounds at the Biltmore Inn, the hotel that those who want to experience some of the luxury of the mansion can stay in.

After our long day of touring, we drove not too far from the estate to find a movie theater. We saw the Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. It is an interesting and involving and evolving story that has a nice twist at the end. Keeps you guessing and quite enjoyable.