Trekking in Asheville- Part two - bookstores and then some!

 Our day trip to nearby Asheville NC meant more time visiting shops, walking around, eating etc. and less time on the road compared to some other trips we've taken. This is the last of two posts about that trip.

The exterior of the Grove Arcade. Inside are many shops, and a delightful architectural salute to times gone by. The upper floors hold apartments.

Helen had really wanted to show us this book store, but unfortunately it was closed.

But we knew where another one was...so off we walked, around downtown!

A pocket community garden was one part of our walk-about.

Walking through a parking lot and down a steep incline brought us to Haywood Ave, where we didn't go to the library but on to Malaprops Bookstore!

I was aware I had read most of the banned books in high school. My friends were surprised. I said we had to write book reports on them also. Of course a couple of these hadn't been written yet when I was in high school.

I happily had a big bottle of water to re-hydrate, while my friends indulged in chocolates.

Asheville does allow sidewalk buskers, as long as they don't interfere with pedestrian traffic.

The restaurants on Wall St. weren't open, and the Laughing Seed vegetarian restaurant has closed for good. As you may notice it was cloudy and cool, so walking wasn't that unpleasant.

Wall Street with big Gingko trees.

Start at Wall Street Garage (lower left) climb stairs to the Grove Arcade (between Page Ave & O'Henry Ave. 

Walk around inside and browse in shops, eat lunch at Carmel's. 

Go outside and try to go to bookstore which was closed. 

Walk up Page Ave and through parking lot by gardens over to Haywood St. (we took a long way around!)

Walk down to corner of Walnut and enjoy Malaprops book store. 

Go across the street to the chocolatier. 

Then see the busker singing at the Flat Iron, and walk back on Wall Street to the garage.

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to give each of those steps a number, but we made a big circuit of part of downtown Asheville.

And I for one was exhausted and went home to take a 2 hour nap!

--------------------

Today's quote:

Annie Proulx was 80 years old and she called herself “bossy, impatient, reclusively shy, short-tempered, single-minded.”

On writing, she says: “You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different worlds on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”