Charlotte

I know I have been on vacation for a week, and not a word, sorry about that, the lady whose House I was staying at, her computer was so slow. Anyway now I am in Charleston I can write a book.

Last Friday i drove from Charlotte to Asheville to go see the Biltmore estate. ( Van Der -Bilt fortune) a very large estate with built in 1895 with lots of rooms to impress the guests. the usual story is that you are not allowed to take photos, but that has never stoped me. there is an amazing collection of really old books and prints from that time period. and hanging on the walls are several tapestries dating for the 1540 s ( that could be better looked after). a large winery on the estate as well.the wine tasting was kinda fun. but I am not into shipping wine back to AK though. photos will be coming i am not sure when.

for some reason the weather gods didn't like me and while I was there it started to snow. Ashville is almost in the mountains, there was snow on the beautiful long drive down to the gate , i thought that once I was down lower the snow would stop. no such luck, some cars were driving at 30 miles an hour with the hazards lights on on the freeway. the 140 miles back to Charlotte was about 40 miles an hour so it took me 4 hours. it was wet slushy snow. with several cars in the ditch etc. ( that probably could have gotten out if they knew how) the drive up was only 2 hours 20 . on nice dry roads.

Thursday i went out to north Charlotte to look at a plantation from 1800. it still had some slave quarters, probably cleaned up a lot. They would have been cold to live in.

there has been some shopping of course, and on Sunday got to go pick up Kerrie and hang out with my nephews who run around really fast. Please remember that i am the child free auntie.

i definitely don't like big freeways, with large trucks and fast cars, i have managed better than I did on my last sojourn south to the lower 48. 80 mph and i am getting past. GPS systems are worth their weight in gold, i can still manage the odd wrong turn.

Monday this week I found a dance studio that had some classes in swing that actually taught me a new east coast move. I guess i don't know everything I thought I did in east coast.

yesterday Kerrie and kids came down to Charleston , I dropped her off at her friends and found my hotel which is down town, more on Charleston another time.

Vacation

It's done, I have just booked my tickets to go on holiday/ vacation. I am going to Charlotte to see my sister in law Kerry. we are going to Charlotte and Charleston. this will be in February.

Kerry is actually lives in Australia, and i haven't seen her in 4 years,( i think ) one of her kids I haven't seen. and this is the first vacation i have taken with someone else since i was married.

I am a happy camper there is a smile on my face.

it will be warm down there. Well compared to here.

Vacation plans,

One step closer to vacation tonight. You may or may not know that the US dollar is getting stronger and the British pound is getting weaker. so i figured it was time to continue with the bookings of tickets.

I had to make a slight change in plan, I get get to just go to Greece, I couldn't get a ticket back out of Rome to London. so I get to fly in and out of Athens from London. i 've been to Italy so no big deal. I get longer to hang in Greece. where it s warmer. maybe i can swing that trip to Istanbul.

Anyway tickets were 82 pounds or $128.00 a the current exchange rate. it looks like a 3 hour flight so i guess i shouldn't complain.. it the same price as what I paid to get to Rome 4 years ago.

tickets to Athens January 13 and return to London on the 30th.

Tickets to London

With it being PFD week around here i thought i would start to look at those tickets, lots of horrible connections and about 1400 to London.on most web sites
Then i saw on cheep air .com tickets. with just on 2 hour connections all the way around
So for 20 hours of flying i am headed to London on January 10 for one month flying via Seattle and Atlanta with Delta airlines. for the price $1180. this is the score of the century. tickets are booked and paid for.
the next plan is to get to Greece. do i want a one way? or do i want to get a ferry to Italy and fly back out of Rome. i hate committing to dates. but i might haveto once i get to Greece I want to see if i can get a side trip to Istanbul. But i am hesitant to go by myself. ( single woman Muslim country, call me chicken if you want)

Other questions that come to mind Mikonos , Corfu? Mikonos comes highly recommended , but Corfu sound s somewhat touristy. Corfu is on the way to Italy. threare ferry's to Brinsi. and Italian trains are fairly reasonable to Rome. I'd like to go back to Florence, and Venice. but then i would have to back track to Rome to fly back to London.
Watch this space to see what happens. I leave January 10.