In all the time we have spent in Western North Carolina, we have spent comparatively little time actually in Asheville.  Everyone knows Asheville, some people know about Brevard, but relatively few people know about places like Waynesville, Sylva, Bryson City and others.

Most of our previous visits to Asheville have been for specific purposes – a visit to a museum, meeting with a photo editor, or a quick stop on our way to somewhere else.  But Asheville is much more than just a place to pass through.  In many ways it is far more cultured than the pseudo-culture of Charlotte, although admittedly there are places in Charlotte that are pretty darned interesting as well.

I have spent virtually no time in Asheville with a camera, so on Sunday afternoon we decided that it was high time we do some exploring.  A quick check of the calendar confirmed that Octoberfest was the previous day, so other than the usual Sunday tourist crowd we figured we’d be OK.  And were right, although the “usual tourist crowd” was still a bunch of people!

We had a nice few hours in town, checked out a few of the highlights but left plenty of places yet to be explored.  We’ll definitely have Asheville on our short list for places to go back to soon.  It’s even a pretty decent day trip from the Big City, so we just have to make a go of it in the near future.