The Biltmore Estate
Beautiful, yet frightening at the same time. I used to love living in a big house and having my own personal space. I still like to have personal space, but living in my small apartment has made me start to welcome small, quaint spaces more. Less to clean, less space to store "crap", only one entrance to be broken into from (the front door, that has steel bolts that run through the floor,ceiling and wall...we're on the eighth floor, which rules out windows and the balcony...unless of course Spider Man comes along), and not as many scary noises.
A few years ago Jose and I took a road trip through Extremadura and we thought it'd be nice to stay the night in a castle. Bad idea. When we got to Caceres it was already nightfall. We decided to get a bite to eat and then go find the castle, Las Seguras, where we'd made our reservation. After dinner we got in the car and found the highway that lead to our destination. It was just like in the movies...dark, foggy, no street lights and no signs. After turning around about five times with no sign of the castle, we decided to take a dirt road more or less where we thought it should be. We drive about a mile and run dead into the castle gates...which were closed and there were no lights on...just our headlights. There was a dog tied up next door that was barking his head off. We didn't know what to do, so I started honking the horn to see if someone would come open the gates for us. Nothing.
After sitting in the car, wide-eyed, in the middle of no where for about 5 minutes, I noticed that the dirt road curved around the castle. We decided to try our luck and go around the castle, all the while hearing the dog barking rabidly. Lights! Yes, we'd made it. But there was just one detail that freaked us out a little. The guy on the phone had told us that the rooms with in-suite bathrooms were all full and that there was just one room left with no bathroom, so we'd have to walk out and use the one in the hall. No problem. But when we drove up at midnight there were no other cars. Where were all the other people??
We hesitantly got out of the car. Jose said, "Now all we need is for one-eyed Egor to greet us at the door". I laughed. We went up, arguing back and forth about who was going to ring the door bell. Finally, I ring it. We hear footsteps. The door opens slowly. A one-armed man opens the door..."We've been waiting for you"...he says!! No joke. I just about wet myself. Jose and I exchanged glances trying not to look afraid. We got our bags out of the car and the one-armed man showed us to our room, and then left.
The room in and of itself was freaky. All the furniture was extrememly old and there was a portrait of an ugly old woman over the bed, whose eyes followed you everywhere you went. The door had one of those huge key holes that you can see through, which I quickly filled with toilet paper. And there were strange hand prints on the walls. We were freaked out to say the least! Still no sign of other guests.
I called my parents to tell them of the ordeal and they just laughed. Jose and I didn't sleep all night. We heard noises. At around 4AM my cell phone rings. "This is the ghost of Las Seguras Castle. Oooooo!" It was my dad from North Carolina playing a joke on me. I wanted to kill him! Sure it was funny for him...it was only 10PM in his nice cozy house...but I was in a cold, scary castle at 4AM!
Morning came. Everything was fine. We were alive. A maid set out coffee and muffins for us in the huge living room full of deer antlers next to a fire. Still no sign of other guests. She was nice and gave us a tour of the rest of the castle, where an old lady lived. It turns out we were actually sleeping in the basement, used in the past as the animal stables. We paid, turned in the key and left skid marks on the dirt road! What an experience! I didn't exaggerate anything in the story...it was freaky. The only thing missing was a thunderstorm.
Here's a picture of Las Seguras Castle where we stayed. Not kidding.
We were happy to get out of there and on the road to Cordoba, where we stayed in a nice hotel. It makes for a fun story, though.
