But before arriving at the castle for my pre-purchased tour time, I had a nice scenic drive through the Santa Ynez valley and Morro Bay. I saw a scenic vista pullover along the way and of course had to pull over to see the view and take some photos! Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of this place. :-(
The sun was bright!
I had to get artistic with my car with those awesome clouds as a backdrop!
Morro Bay was a cute little town that reminded me of coastal towns in the Northeast. There were a lot of shops along the bay, and the large rock that is the signature of this town was pretty cool, especially as the fog cleared. I kind of wish I had had more time to explore some of the shops.
I also stopped in the towns of Pismo Beach and Los Osos, but there wasn't much there to see and photograph (they were mostly parks and since I was trying to make my tour time, I unfortunately didn't have time to explore them more than just driving through).
I arrived at the castle and entered the visitor's center to get my ticket and await the bus that drives you 5 miles (or 1 mile?) up to the castle. The land on which the castle is situated is 250,000 acres along the Central Coast. The castle itself is near the town of San Simeon. From what I remember from the tour, the castle was supposed to be comprised of 7 cottages, but only 5 were built. Hearst's girlfriend was a Hollywood starlet, so he often had movie stars up there like Cary Grant and Charlie Chaplin (we saw some video of Chaplin during the tour, which was neat).
This is a photo from the visitor's center looking out to the castle.
This is the same photo, but zoomed in so you can actually see the castle.
As we drove up to the castle, we learned that Hearst used to have a zoo on the property with lots of exotic animals that roamed the grounds. They said most of the animals were sold or given away to zoos when he died, but zebras, rams, and some species of African deer are still there. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any on our way up. We stood beneath this orange tree as the tour began.
This is the Casa del Sol, one of the 5 "cottages" at the castle. The view from this plaza was amazing, overlooking the ocean (see second photo below).
One of the more spectacular places in the castle is the Neptune Pool. Hearst loved to swim, so he had two pools built. This one is outdoors and the depth is graded (unlike the second pool, which I will get to later). The most interesting things to me about this pool were that at 104 feet, it is longer than Christopher Columbus' flagship and the statues on one of the buildings are from 17th-century Italy. Hearst bought them at auction.
These are shots of just one of the beautiful gardens at the castle.
This is the back of the Casa del Sol. We got to go into this guest house. It consisted of four rooms with four bathrooms, laid out in a square. The windows were Renaissance style, being closer to the floor than other windows so you could look right out at the view.
The first bedroom had a gold leaf ceiling.
Second bedroom with the Renaissance windows.
Next, we went to the Casa Grande. This "cottage" went through many expansions, including one to accomodate the 40 bells Hearst purchased for the bell towers. It was never finished (as you can see by the third photo below), but it was quite impressive!
This was the view from the Casa Grande plaza. It was so neat because we were above the cloud cover rolling in from the ocean. So, you can see the ocean below, but you can also see the tops of the clouds! I had never seen that before except from the window of an airplane.
Our first stop inside the house was the big living room. If you turn the sound up, you should be able to hear the tour guide talking about how the guests were expected to come here and hang out instead of going into their own rooms -- it was supposed to be a social visit. Kind of reminded me of the Mohonk House in NY.
This was the ornate dining room. Can you imagine sitting at this table for dinner? The walls were lined with antique (18th-century, I think?) Spanish hand-carved wood seats. They were not used as seats, but rather, as paneling! The flags were jousting flags (I think) and were added because of the height of the room. The guide told us that the people making the first Harry Potter movies came to look at this dining room for inspiration for the set of the Great Hall in the movies! Apparently, Hearst would sit in the middle of the table and would request that whoever he found most interesting sit closest to him to provide good conversation. So you could tell how "in" you were by how close to him you sat at the table!
Some of my dad must have rubbed off on me, because I was most impressed by the wood carvings in the ceiling! These were three-dimensional carvings of the saints.
Next was one of my favorite rooms -- the screening room (aka the full-sized movie theatre!) Hearst would invite his Hollywood friends up here to watch movies and even the staff could watch from the back. My favorite part were the blankets hung over the back of the chairs. Definitely my kind of screening room!
Outdoor tennis courts.
This was the Roman pool, the second pool on the property and our last stop on the tour. It was indoor, 10 feet deep all the way across, with no lighting inside the pool. It is lined with 1" square glass mosaic tiles.
There was such a perfect reflection in the pool!
This is a photo of the diving platform.
Thus ended my tour of Hearst Castle. I'm really glad I came and would like to go back sometime and do one of the other tours. I also didn't get to see the National Geographic movie that went along with the tour, but felt like I had gotten enough of the building history from the tour that it wasn't necessary. So, I was on my to Carmel via Big Sur!
1 comment:
That castle is pretty awesome. I think I'd be bored there though... no internet or TV! :)
That's a cool shot of the clouds with your car.
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