Shenandoah Valley + Luray Caverns + New Market

We almost made it a day without doing anything civil war related. 😉


Koen is much more into nature than I am and he loves photography, so we

decided to do the Skyline drive today through the Shenandoah Valley. So today I am going to use his photos. Again not something I had never done before, my first time here was October 1993. Maybe that spoilt it for me for coming back in any other time of year as however beautiful it is, I was underwhelmed. I remembered the spectacular fall colours of that first visit. And I have to admit that I am someone who usually likes my nature only if it is combined with history. Except for the polders and the beach. 

The skyline drive is driving at a slow pace over the tops of the Shenandoah mountains. Koen was really hoping we would spot some wild animals and we were lucky although it was not the bears he had wanted. Secretly I did not mind that so much.

We saw many birds and on the last stretch a wild deer crossing the road. Around here they are not afraid enough of people. Thankfully you have to drive slowly.

There are a few points were you can enter and exit the parc and we exited for lunch and the Luray caverns. Again not something new but another place that I found completely changed over the years. When I was here last you went into the caves with a guided tour. Now the outside looked like an amusement parc with other attractions and the caverns were done by a self guided tour.

Don't get me wrong, they are still pretty spectacular. Especially the part were there is an underground lake and the stalagmites reflect in the water. And this way you can guide many more tourists through the caves on a given day. Again mass tourism isn't my thing. I prefer the guided ones were you can ask the quide questions and it feels more intimate.

After lunch we did a bit more of the skyline drive but then took the next exit and drove back to New Market. You guessed it at the end of the day we stopped at the New market battlefield and just had time to look around the museum before they closed for the day. As the ticket was for 3 days we already decided to head back on Thursday when we wanted to do more of the Shenandoah Valley.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sixth holiday blog

Image
We are coming to the end of my holiday. Friday was the last day of sightseeing and we had selected Porthsmouth. Again not too far a drive from Winchester. Here you can see two great historic ships. The first is HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. Last time I was here you went in with a guided tour, now it was selfguided. And I remem bered correctly how hard it is on us who are a bit taller. With 1.84 it is not fun. And the poor captain of the boat was 1.93. While would anyone of that length want to enter the navy of that time is beyond me. We all enjoyed the tour very much and after this one we went to the Mary Rose museum. She is a Tudor royal ship, named after Henry VIII's favorite sister. There is about half of the ship left and it is still being sprayed with a solution to save her. Amazing that it sunk almost 500 years ago. This year in September she will be dry and then they will preserve her and build a new museum that will open in 2012. I do want to come bac...
Read more

Flow!

Image
Flow is a wonderfull thing, it makes you creative and you want to keep going and going without ever stopping what you are doing. But.... if you are a chronic sufferer like me, it has it's drawbacks. I function very well if I take many a n to my practice in fact. It came to me last week. I don't have my own space for sessions so I have to rent. I like to communicate with people all over the world and already want to work with people from foreign countries who live in the Netherlands. Why not branch out to internet coaching? And use modern techniques as voice and video on the computer. I could then branch out to people who are thinking about moving and give them advice. And even do regular counseling/coaching for people who find it hard to come to my location. nd long breaks throughout the day. And well that kinda breaks the flow. finding my way in this process has taken me a long time. And I am there now, most of the time. This week I found it very difficult to stop in time, bef...
Read more

Dutch drivers

Image
There are days that I hate Dutch drivers! I had to take my dad to the hospital this morning for a check-up and of course it as during rush hour. In town I have to cross a point were it is almost impossible to get on the road at that hour because nobody will let you in. So I avoided this point by taking a detour and ended up there on the right road. Now I was thinking about the other people who have trouble merging in. And I let one car in what all the cars ahead of me didn't do. But then the other cars waiting pushed their way in in front of me. And that makes me mad!!!! you try to help and then they take advantage of you. Not good! At the hospital which we made with minutes to spare we found out that the doctor had been stuck in traffic and there was a 45 minutes delay. Grrrrrr not a nice morning. Started a new book this morning when I got home. romantic historical novel set in the time of Charles I. It is a new writer for me, so it is wait and see. I like a good story in my roma...
Read more