Travel Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia campus

This video was taken during our fall vacation in Virginia on October 3, 2007. Our first excursion was to the town of Lexington, a historic settlement of about 7000 souls in the southern Shenandoah Valley. Lexington has a well preserved downtown and features two major academic institutions with impressive campuses: the Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. The downtown streets are flanked by ecclectic retail stores in historic homes and the adjoining neighbourhoods are full of impressive mansions and mature trees.

Our drive then took us east to the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic drive along the Appalachian Ridge that stretches 755 km (470 miles) from North Carolina to Virginia. Great mountain vistas opened up towards the west over the expansive Shenandoah Valley and the mountain ridges towards the east.

We exited the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesborough and headed east on Interstate 64 to a city called Charlottesville. We were both impressed by this city of about 40,000 people whose main anchor is the University of Virginia. It was founded by Thomas Jefferson, whose nearby mountain-top villa Monticello is a big tourist draw for the area. The campus impresses with its colonial architecture, and the downtown area features a pedestrian zone called the "Downtown Mall". In this area several blocks of a main street have been blocked off to traffic and now feature restaurants, galleries, retail stores and other attractions. Charlottesville was apparently chosen as one of America's most livable cities, and we could certainly see its appeal. We capped off a great outing with a tasty dinner in a Mexican restaurant in the student quarter and headed back to our home base over the mountains.

I am actually a travel writer who loves to explore international destinations as well as my chosen home town of Toronto. On Youtube you will find hundreds of video clips from a wide variety of destinations. Feel free to check out some of my 700+ articles and interviews on http://www.travelandtransitions.com. Also, my travel e-books containing stories from my trips to destinations such as Sicily, Havana, Mexico City, New York City, Chicago, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Halifax and many others are available right now at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/e-books.htm.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Virginia
• Lexington
• Lee
• University
• Shenandoah
• Valley
• Charlottesville

[Rao665]

@monumentfloyd

Sounds like Any Town, USA to me. Military Bases and Universities are the main culprits. The Military guys talking shit about the local town, or the student from another state with the douchey attitude. Definitely not unique to UVA...or Colleges for that matter.

[acerb45666555]

To me a university is sacred ground! ..Therefore, when a demonstration is need for some issue, organize it off campus! find some park, say yer bit, feed the pidgies!, and the Dean dont freakout!! dig! :)

[monumentfloyd]

By uppity I mean what I have witnessed . These students think they own the town . C-ville. They get very loud and disorderly. Most of them are from up North. They have no respect for the locals. There is also a long standing tension between blacks and the UVA students. This is more because of the attitude of these students. Maybe its not just unique to UVA, but I've seen quite a lot of it. Furthermore, This fake liberalism they put on makes me want to scream and claw my face.

[beeachblonde]

what do u mean by "uppity?"

[monumentfloyd]

UVA is an okay school, but the students seem to get very uppity.

[soccergirly87]

That Chapel chime - I hear it and think, dayum, late to class again!

[soccergirly87]

Yay, the UVA Grounds!! But I agree, where's the Lawn?? (1991 grad here)

[merishane]

DID YOU GO TO ADVENTURE BOUND SCHOOL OUT-SIDE OF CHARLOTTESVILLE V.A. BETWEEN 1985 THRU 1987 ? IF SO HOLLA AT ME AT merishane ON YOU-TUBE !!!! CSC/09 IN LYNCHBURG V.A. (U.S.A.)

[julinside]

Los Angeles.

[coorsbabesrule]

wat part of CA do u live in?