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Day 14, Thursday 7 June 2007, San Simeon and Hearst Castle
OK, so after today's drive, I am officially sick of twisty turny, meandering, winding, up and down coastal roads!!! LOL
We left San Fran quite early and on the way out, we drove down the twisty bit of Lombard Street, which was great fun! After that we headed out of SF and onto the freeway, which worked for a while, until we missed the turn off to the coast. Signage in the US leaves a little to be desired, I have to say. Either the sigh for a road is just after it (how does that help?) or the sign is so small or so last minute, that you miss the turn or don't even realise you've missed it until you come to a place that you knew you weren't supposed to come to! Which is what we did!
Anyway, we decided to take the 'scenic' road towards the coast, as opposed to staying on the freeway and going further south and then cutting back up to San Simeon. Sigh, what a decision! With time getting away from us (we were booked on the last tour
Hearst Castle 2
The outdoor pool!of the day to do Hearst Castle, at 3.20), we made a rather mad dash for the coast and this is why I'm officially sick of winding and twisting, up and down roads! Once we finally arrived, S&D were feeling pretty sick from the trip, which I can't blame them for, sitting in the back for a trip like that would have been hell! While the scenery was amazing along the way, as I was driving, I really didn't get to enjoy it either! Still, we made it just in time for our tour.
Hearst Castle is built on the top of a hill overlooking the coast line. It is truely an amazing building, or series of buildings I should say. It is built on 127 acres of land and has 165 rooms as well as gardens, terraces, pools and walkways. Plus it also has buildings from a zoo that used to be on the property, with polar bears and zebras and giraffes, etc! It was finished around 1947 and took over 15 years to build and was the dream of William Randolph Hearst, the silver mining and newspaper millionnaire (who is also the grandfather of Patty Hearst, the
heiress who was kipnapped and gave name to the Stockholm syndrome).
The house itself is amazing just for all the artefacts from all around the world that are there, including statues from Egypt and a fireplace from somewhere in Europe (sorry, don't know the details, you know me!), that stands about 10 feet tall!
The tour also included an amazing National Geographic film on WR Hearst and the building of the castle, which was great. One of the best films I've seen in years.
We finished the day off with a great meal at a local restaurant and had early nights.
Tomorrow its an early start for the drive to LA and Universal Studios! Yeah baby!
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