North…to Virginia…

Another road trip – this time, we headed north to Charlottesville in Virginia - David had an interview for a Plastic Surgery residency at UVA so we went along for the trip too…Charlottesville is situated in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in an area well known for its history, art and several wineries…

Usually a six hour drive, we needed to factor in time for Elsbeth stops, so we set off at 8am – there was an evening reception for the candidates which began at 7pm,  so we planned to get into Charlottesville in plenty of time so Dave could relax before the reception.   The drive up the motorway was pretty standard before we turned off onto a smaller dual carriageway – as we got into Virginia, the countryside changed to forests and mountains and the final stretch into Charlottesville was really pretty – the road wound through hills and valleys where some trees still had the remnants of autumn colour clinging on…

Charlottesville is renowned for the UVA – University of Virginia – walking around the medical facilites was fascinating – it’s a huge campus with a mix of new and old buildings – beautiful buildings complete with roman columns sat alongside huge modern glass structures, and it seemed to work!  A quick stroll around to find the venue for both the evening do and the morning interview before we headed back to our hotel for the evening.

The interview was scheduled for 7.15am so an early start – by the time we’d got ourselves organised, we headed into town for a late breakfast – downtown Charlottesville has a pedestrian mall area which is ‘old’ town – a lovely area lined with some fab shops full of pretty Christmas stuff – we were so taken with one store but the goodies were seriously expensive – beautiful displays of all sorts of stuff you didn’t know you needed!  Breakfast was in a lovely old fashioned diner – we had ‘Eggy bread’ with maple syrup – yum!  Another stroll around before we headed back to the car to wait for David’s call to say he was finished…it’s a waiting game now as the outcome will be known in March.

Once David joined us, it was nearly 2pm so a late bite of lunch and a debrief before they headed back to Columbia – Andrew and I decided to stay on to explore a little more…although it was overcast and a bit dull, it didn’t detract from the lovely atmosphere in Charlottesville – wandering around we found a bookstore which wouldn’t have been out of place in the world famous Hay-on-Wye – the home of books…as we walked in, we were greeted by a sign saying there were 3 floors of books…my kind of place!  As we went up to the 1^st floor, the stairs were lined with books, plus books in boxes on each step – oh my…this could take a while!  Back downstairs, Andrew was paying for his books while I wandered to the back of the store and found the stairs going down..uh oh…a basement labyrinth of books from floor to ceiling…another happy hour or so passed before we surfaced again :D  Chatting to the owner who had been there for 40 years (!) he told us all sorts of interesting things including the history behind one of the town’s restaurants which he and a friend had started 40 years before… The Washington Post described the Daedalus Bookshop as “a three-story temple of secondhand lit, a bibliophile’s church tucked away on a curling side street. The steps creak, the nooks are shadowed. Books are piled from dusty floor to shelves that scrape the ceiling.”

By the time we left, it was dark and the Christmas lights were on….time to find somewhere to eat and stay so we headed out of town and found Barracks Road Shopping Mall where we had a lovely meal at a Thai restaurant – and found a cook shop – wow!  Gizmos and gadgets I didn’t know existed, let alone knew I needed :D  The stores are full of Christmas here and apart from the regular department stores which all have the same stuff in several variations, the small stores have displays which are so pretty and entice you in…Some of the houses go all out with their Christmas displays too – fairy lights and Santas, reindeer dance on front lawns while windows display identical wreaths with giant red bows and porches are swathed with greenery and lights – it really is so pretty…but not easy to photograph in the rain!

The following day started with torrential rain and low clouds which pretty much scuppered any plans we had to see more of Charlottesville and the surrounding areas…we had wanted to visit Monticello – the home of Thomas Jefferson – but we wouldn’t have seen anything of the fabulous grounds and views so instead, we decided to head south on US 15 – an old historic highway…which led us through some very familiar looking countryside – at one point, we both said the scenery could have been Herefordshire…the Virginia hills were pretty even though we saw them through the rain – definitely will have to revisit this part of the world again…

On down US 15 – through some quaint old towns perched at crossroads – through miles of pine forests – past little country stores with names like ‘Granny’s Attic’ and ‘Bob’s Place – where you can buy anything’   We went past Farmville and Dilwyn and Buckingham – so many familiar English names…a little place called Rockingham had some of the prettiest houses yet…We got lost a couple of times which made the trip back to Columbia a little more interesting…a detour through Chapel Hill and Durham at night brought more Christmas lights and pretty pedestrian areas…wide streets lined with gorgeous houses with wide porches decorated with swathes of greenery and red bows…

Getting off the main interstates and highways is definitely the way to see more of the country – some of the little communities we passed were quite poor and it was hard to figure out why they existed where they did…some farming and forestry, but no industry otherwise – just a little plot of land with a trailer and a veg patch…

Back to Columbia to find all well – so happy we get to spend more time with the family…