Blogs from San Simeon, California, United States, North America

Today's weather was perfect for a road trip, so we packed up and headed to one of our most anticipated bucket list items...The Hearst Castle. William Randolph Hearst referred to the mountain top as La Cuesta Encantada (The Enchanted Hill) and we'd say it more than lives up to its name. To build his amazing castle, he hired California's first female licensed architect to assist with his plan; to build a few modest bungalows on the mountain top (with its 153,000 surrounding acre ranch) he camped on as a boy. But as things go with mega-millionaires...they added on a little bit along the way until he created one the most amazing museums and party palaces we've ever visited. The Casa Grande, (Big House) contains 115 rooms, 38 bedrooms, 42 bathrooms, 14 sitting rooms, 2 libraries, indoor ... read more

Like our whole trip our last 2 days have been eventful. On Wednesday we had another sleep in, hit the streets for the morning and had a look at Chinatown, San Fran has the biggest Chinatown is the biggest in North America. It was just like Sydney's but bigger with plenty of people haggling you into their food shops. With it being bigger it had more traditional building and red lanterns along the whole Main Street. We looked around and found a place which sold its roof by the pound so gave that a go. After our visit we walked around, got lost and went to pick up our car. Picking up our car wasn't as straight forward as it should have been. Our pickup location was a rather fancy motel, which looked like it was ... read more

Another motel room for the night. Travelled across the valley on busy duel carriageway in high winds. The terrain starts to change as one starts to climb up over the hills before you reach the coast. Initially I thought the hills were large sand dunes, but realised as I got nearer that it was just brown grass! As we rose over the first few I realised, yet again, that my perspective was way off, and the ocean no where to be seen. Not much fun on those roads, being blasted by the winds and rocked by the large lorries going by, but made it to Monterey. A very hip, trendy and expensive town which we drove pretty well straight through and onto highway 1. Highway 1 is pretty well as portrayed, but it was a windy ... read more

Another sleep in this morning as we make our way to San Simeon, we travel along the coast road, it looks a lot like the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia and as we travel along there is pampas grass growing all along the coast line, when the sun shines on them it looks wonderful. As we get closer to San Simeon, you can see Sea Otters playing in the ocean, only just, but you know its them as thier heads bob up and down out of the water, we stop along the way just before San Simeon where you can see about a hundred Elephant Seals sunning themselves on the beach, they look amazing, you look at their sweet little faces and wonder how anyone could harm such an amazing creature, thank goodness for the ... read more

San Francisco (Californie) à San Simeon (Californie) ========= 371 km (Cumulatif=8581) ========= Température: Frisquet avec un ciel souvent nuageux ========= Résumé : -------- - Entretien de la moto (Changement huiles, etc.) ========= - Route en direction du sud : -------- o Nous circulons lentement et admirons le magnifique paysage; -------- o La route 1 est sinueuse et souvent dans les montagnes. Nous surplombons les falaises le long de l’océan. À nouveau, il s’agit d’une route phénoménale pour les motocyclistes, surtout après la ville de Santa Cruz; ========= - Château de William Randolph Hearst -------- o Arrivée trop tard : nous ferons la visite demain matin ========= - Arrivée au motel à San Simeon : -------- o Petite baignade et bain sauna; -------- o Excellent souper au saumon. ... read more