Welcome

Time flies. We are already in the middle of 2021 and it seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the arrival of the New Year.

As I mentioned in the last issue, my wife and I recently traveled for a few days to the mountains of North Carolina. Taking advantage of an invitation from friends to attend their daughter's wedding in South Carolina, we decided to spend a few days in the mountains. At the same time, we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and although the plans had originally been different, due to the pandemic we had to change them.

The trip was not a photography trip but I still had the opportunity to take some pictures of the places we visited. The weather did not always cooperate as we would have liked but despite the cold weather and a couple of cloudy and rainy days, we had wonderful time. The pictures may not be what I would have liked, but they serve as a nice memory of this trip. I always say, I love nature and through it I can see the wonders that our Creator has made for the enjoyment of all mankind; it is a shame that we do not always respect that nature as we should.

In this new edition of the magazine, I share some photos of those places we visited: Linville Falls, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mount Mitchell and Cades Cove. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did while I was taking them.

Until next time, my best wishes to each of you.

Linville Falls

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

Linville Falls is one of the most impressive waterfalls on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was our first stop during our days in North Carolina. Here are some interesting facts about the falls.

Linville Falls is a waterfall located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the United States. The falls move in several distinct steps, beginning in a twin set of upper falls, moving down a small gorge, and culminating in a high-volume 45-foot (14 m) drop. It is named for the Linville River, which goes over the falls. Linville Falls has the highest volume of any waterfall on the Northern Edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The falls is owned by the National Park Service, which operates a visitor center and several miles of non-handicapped accessible trails with 4 overlooks for the falls. The 0.5-mile (0.80 km) Upper Falls trail leads to the top of the falls, where visitors can see the small twin upper falls and the water spiraling through a small canyon on its way to the main falls. The Erwin's View trail leads to 2 overlooks, the Chimney View overlook (0.7 miles) and the Erwin's View overlook (0.8 miles). The 0.5-mile (0.80 km) Plunge Basin Trail leads to the Plunge Basin Overlook, which provides a view of the falls from the other side of the river. Finally, the 0.7-mile (1.1 km) Gorge Trail, which branches off from the Plunge Basin trail, leads to an area near the foot of the falls.

George Vanderbilt, a member of one of the most prominent clans of the New York aristocracy, visited Asheville, a small North Carolina town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, for the first time in 1888. He was accompanying his mother, whom the doctor had recommended to go there for its clean air, as she was suffering from respiratory problems. Young George, then a coveted bachelor of 25, was immediately captivated by the breathtaking beauty of the landscape. He decided to build a house where his family and friends could escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. But it was not going to be just any house. Biltmore, as he would call it, was to be the largest private residence in the United States. Today it is a tourist destination visited by more than a million people a year.

After that first visit with his mother, Vanderbilt began to acquire land in the area, until he accumulated no less than 50,000 hectares. To design the lavish home, he hired the services of architect Richard Morris Hunt, who designed a mansion with 250 rooms reminiscent of the old French palaces. Around it, he would also transform the old rustic lands into a bucolic natural garden, an adaptation that he commissioned the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Work began the year after Vanderbilt's first visit, in 1889, and after a construction process that employed an army of workers, Biltmore officially opened its doors to relatives and friends in 1895.

Three years later, in a discreet ceremony in Paris, George Vanderbilt married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, ten years his junior and a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, later New York. The happy couple joyfully welcomed the arrival of their daughter Cornelia into the world in 1900, a social event at the time.

Thirteen years later, however, tragedy struck the family. After an appendicitis operation in Washington, Biltmore founder George Vanderbilt died in early March 1914. He was 51 years old.

His widow continued to live in the mansion. In 1930, Biltmore was opened to the public as a way to attract tourism to the area in the midst of the severe economic depression the United States was experiencing at the time. During World War II, it also served as a storage facility to protect dozens of works of art from possible attack by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Although much of the enormous land acquired by George Vanderbilt was sold, more than 3,200 hectares of manicured woodlands and gardens remained.

Today, Biltmore continues to dazzle with its size and ostentatious splurge the many visitors it receives each year. The mansion and estate have grown into a large company that employs 2,000 people and whose CEO is a grandson of John Cecil and Edith Stuyvesant, William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil Jr.

The spectacular view of the front of the house and the esplanade in front of it make Biltmore an American Versailles.

Its interior is no less dazzling. In addition to its spacious living rooms and bedrooms, it has a library with 10,000 volumes, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, gym and bowling alley, among other facilities, and among its works of art are paintings by Renoir and John Singer Sargent, and even tapestries from the 16th century.