Christmas at Biltmore

The last few days have been great and I have the most amazing husband ever. I sure don't know what I did to deserve him, but I'm glad he's mine forever. He planned the last three days all on his own and took me to see the Biltmore Estate for the candlelight Christmas and the behind the scene tours of Biltmore. We visited Biltmore in April 2010 for our 5 year wedding anniversary and it was a great trip. During that trip we did the tour of just the house and grounds. This time we went at night to enjoy the Christmas lights in the house and then the next day we did the extra behind the scene tours that's not open to the public on the regular tour.

We stayed at the Hilton at Biltmore Park. It was so NICE

Driving up to the Biltmore at sunset for the Christmas tour Friday night

 We could not take pictures inside the house, so I was just able to get some outside before it got dark

 Saturday we toured the house again and then we did two behind the scene tours

 Outside view of the grand staircase. There are two statues in his picture that hang from the staircase. The figure on the left is Joan of Arc and the figure on the right is Louie the 9th

Our first behind the scene tour was the Architectural Tour. We were able to go on the roof tops and most of the balconies. This was the view from one of the front balconies

 View of the Italian gardens

We were able to touch one of the 117 year old statues that's placed on the front of the house

Top view of the winter garden

The roof top. Notice the GV in the copper? Those are George Vanderbilt's initial's, the man who built Biltmore, and its all around the house. They use to be gold plated, but over time the gold has worn away. You could still see a little gold flake still remaining   

The statue on the right just made me laugh. It's a bear holding a honey pot. No one knows why he's there, but he is and I just thought he was kinda neat

 We were on the personal balcony of George Vanderbilt. This was his backyard view

After the Architectural Tour we did the butler tour, but that was all in the house and we were not able to take any pictures. That was a great tour as well. We were able to see bathrooms, closets, butler kitchens and pantries, lady maids quarters, sewing room, etc....

This house is just AMAZING. I'm not really a history buff, but I really do enjoy this house and learning about the history behind her. We were told they just received a grant to renovate more rooms to open to the public so I will defiantly be going back in a few years to see the new open wings of the home.