October 14. 2019 – Montreat and Biltmore Estate

Last night we met our group. There are 24 of us.  There are 3 other Road Scholar groups at the Inn. One group is “Interpreting Dreams”, another is here for Yoga, and the third is discussing Agatha Christie and Mysteries.

This morning after a hearty southern breakfast we had a lecture to learn about George Washington Vanderbilt and the Biltmore House and Estate.  Fascinating story. His grandchildren live in houses on the Estate and manage it. The house was designed by Richard Morris Hunt with a lot of input from Vanderbilt, sculptors and carving by Karl Bitter, the tile work by Rafael Guastavino, and gardens by Frederick Law Olmsted.

After lunch we went to the Estate and toured the house and gardens. The vans then took us to the winery but the lines for wine tasting were too long. We did dip and mustard tasting instead. We finished up at the ice cream parlor before heading back to the inn.

After dinner we had a hammered dulcimer concert by Joshua Messick.  He not only played but explained how the hammered dulcimer is built and played. I bought his two Christmas CD’s.