New market, Belle Grove, Civil war museum Harrisburg

 A very early start this morning as we had to drive all the way down to the end of the Shendandoah valley for the nearest car rental spot in the direction we were going today. It was at a very small regional airport. The people already expected us and it was no trouble getting another car. Same make and model just another colour. and within half an hour we were on our way again.

Two days earlier we had seen there was another civil war musuem in New Market and we decided to just have a look at it.  This turned out to be an absolute find and the kind of museum I love. Basically it was one person's collection and as many objects as possible we crammed into display cases. There was so much to look at! It ranged from, the revolution, civil war, Native american artifacts, WW II and asian art. It was astounding that one person was able to collect all this and had the money to collect it all. It must have been in a time before collectors paid the real big bucks and some of the stuff was really rare.

I am not a lover of most modern museums were it is all about the experience and keeping people entertained. I already said how much I preferred the old visitor centre at Gettysburg above the present one. So this museum was a bit of fresh air. The majority of the artifacts were civil war and this being a private museum in Viriginia you can guess were the focus was. And a museum is exactly the right place to display these artifacts. We had a delightful few hours here.

We found another cracker barrel to have lunch and then drove back to the vicinity of Winchester. Here we visited Belle Grove plantation. And here they still did guided tours. We were a very small group and it was nice to get a history of the house but also of the battle of cedar creek which was fought very close to the house. Belle grove was very lucky to escape burning during the war because it was often used as a headquarters. And after the battle as a hospital. Confederate general Ramseur died in the house while his friends in the Union army visited him as often as they could. Again here there was attention given and mention in the tour of the plight of the enslaved. No slave cabins but the area of the slave cemetery was marked. I think they are really finding the right balance to talk about the past here. 

We did drive into Winchester but it was now pretty late so all museums were already closed. Many are not yet on summer hours and shut pretty early. And we were not that impressed with downtown Winchester, or we were in the wrong area. It seemed mostly restaurants and bars in the old houses which was a bit of a shame.

Friday morning it was already time to leave our lovely airb&b, we had a lovely time here. And I was sad to leave it. Today we would drive back to Koen's aunt and uncle with a stop in Harrisburg. Koen had an internet friend who lived here and who wanted to meet him, beforehand we visited the civil war museum in Harrisburg. 

It is located in a spectacular location on a hill. It is a fairly new museum and gives a good overview of the war. It was nicely balanced between Union and Confederate. Gettysburg seemed to have a lot of emphasis on Pickett with Pickett artifacts that you would not expect in a museum here.

Lunch was great a really nice lady. Not what I would expect from lunch. It was a bbq. She had gone through so much trouble to prepare it all. And it was a nice end to a remarkable holiday.