The highs and lows of the Shenandoah Valley

We left the Fairfield Inn in Strasburg on Thursday morning and headed down route 11, a Virginia Scenic Byway also referred to as the Old Valley Pike.

We drove as far as New Market, the site of a significant Civil War Battle before heading over route 211 to the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.

http://www.shenandoahtravel.org/

Our first stop was at the Shenandoah County Court House on Main Street, designed by Thomas Jefferson and in use since 1795. We took a picture of the statue of Peter Muhlenberg (born an died at Trappe, PA) who lived in Woodstock and was a clergyman and a general in the Revolutionary Army, leading a brigade at the Battle of Yorktown.

Just south of Mount Jackson, we stopped to see the Meems Bottom covered bridge.

Beyond the bridge, there was a lovely B & B shrouded in the early morning mist. We stopped to talk to a woman at the farm across the road who was tending to her 6 horses. One was a beautiful foal (colt), born 4 days earlier.

We drove as far as New Market, the site of a significant Civil War Battle before heading over route 211 to Shenandoah National Park. We followed the Skyline Drive through the park for about 30 miles, enjoying the vistas along the way.
















On leaving the National Park, we headed south on route 29 to Charlottesville, where we strolled the downtown mall and had a tasty bite of pizza at Vita Nova.




We then headed for the University of Virginia campus to visit the "Academical Village" and the Rotunda designed by Jefferson. The Rotunda echoes the design of the Pantheon in Rome.

Above is a sitting room inside the Rotunda.

This is one of the many brick serpentine walls around campus.