From San Simeon, we made our way to Hearst Castle which was about 10 minutes drive away. You can see it high up on the hill as you make your way into the visitor centre. There are a few tours, an upstairs one, a downstairs one (what a shame you couldn’t do a bit of both, but hey, the Hearsts need money), a garden one and a kitchen one. We chose the upstairs one as it seemed to show the most elaborate rooms. At $25USD per person, per tour, one was enough.
They took us in a little bus up the long winding road to the castle. The audio commentary (done by some StarTrek guy) said that the road was designed to give sneak peeks of the castle here and there as you come around the curves, thereby adding to the mystique of the place. There were cows here and there, and once, it was a zoo and guests would see exotic animals like giraffes and lions on the way up. It turns out that when Mr Hearst had a dip in his finances, he donated some of the animals to different zoos - not all of them though, there was no mention of what happened to the other animals.
We made it to the top and were greeted by our tour guide, Jason. This guy knew absolutely everything about the castle. You could ask him anything, and he had an answer. Seriously, an answer to every single question thrown at him. If you go to the castle, go early in the morning. We only had 6 people in our tour group, so photos without people’s heads was easy, as well as being able to ask as many questions as you liked. We started off in one of the courtyards and got a little run down about how the castle was built over the years, and a bit about Hearst’s life. His family used to camp on top of the mountain and he decided he wanted something a little more permanent.
The castle is lush and if you are in the area, or close to it, take the time to go and check it out. Each room was furnished in lavish carpets, textiles, ornate furnishings - all very reminiscent of things we’ve seen in European castles. His library was amazing. Books lined the walls behind glass doors and from the bits that we saw, they were sectioned off like any large library. We were standing beside the section on Italian architecture, which was beside the French history part. There was a long boardroom table in this room as well, which is where he held meetings with his copy writers. The focal point of the room was a portrait of the man himself, hanging on the wall at the end of the library. Seemingly, Hearst never wrote copy, that was for the minions. He wrote the front page and the headlines.
We moved through the cloisters where his guests would stay. More lavish rooms. Some made up for married couples, others for single people. If you weren’t married, there was no chance of visiting your girlfriends’/boyfriends’ room. Jason told us a story of how David Niven thought he’d sneak into his lady’s room during the middle of the night but got lost in the castle. After wandering through a couple of the storeys, I’m not surprised. The cloisters were flanked by a walkway with huge windows opening onto the estate. This was three storeys up, so the breeze was pretty amazing. You’d be lovely and warm due to the fireplaces during winter, and the beautiful sea breezes would cool the place during the summer. Perfect!
Next up was Hearsts’ bedroom. It was smaller than I thought it would be, based on the lavishness of the place. A few photos of his parents and grandparents, and a little gold leaf piece of artwork of the Madonna and child. They had this valued when on loan to a museum, and it came in at a little under $60mil. Seriously, it was smaller than the Mona Lisa. Across the hall was his girlfriend’s bedroom - the movie actress Marion Davies. It was about the same size and both rooms had lovely little Juliet balconies that looked over the estate. The designer and architect for the place (who spent 28 years completing it) covered Ms Davies’ room with religious art. Six pieces all depicting the Madonna and child. Jason thought this may have been a not-so subtle way of saying she didn’t really approve of the mistress. Hearst was still married, but had come to an amicable agreement with his wife as opposed to a messy, difficult and lengthy divorce. The first Mrs Hearst stayed in New York and enjoyed the social scene her married name allowed her, while Mr Hearst spent a good 35 years madly in love with his mistress, for all the world to see.
There was a fourth storey to the castle as well. In here was the ‘celestial room’. A bedroom that was part of the turret, directly under the bells (yes, there were tolling bells). It was an octagonal room with wall dressings very similar to some of the Middle Eastern architecture we saw in Spain. Little hexagons of wood, which let light in through the centre. It was all coated in 24 carat gold (as were many things in the palace). Jason said that this was the room that Hedda Hopper would stay in when she visited - and it seems that Mr Hearst used the favour of the room to convince Hedda to write in a way he was happy with (namely, a bad review about a movie that Ms Davies was not in). Standing in a room that was topped by heavy bells, and also the giant water tanks, would normally be a little unnerving, but Jason said that during the 6.0 earthquake in the 80s, nothing broke or moved within the palace, but the bells shook so much they tolled. Pretty impressive considering they are the type of bells where the ringer is the part that stays still and it’s the bells that move.
After the tour was over, we were free to roam about the gardens. They were beautifully manicured (of course) and there were some amazing roses. One in particular, the George Washington, had the most beautiful perfume. I want one of these rose buses for outside my bedroom window. There were statues and fruit trees and little steps and paths here and there. You could easily stroll around for hours enjoying the glimpses down the hillside to the ocean below. We made our way to the indoor pool - sadly, the Neptune pool which had the mosaic of Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of the World’ on the floor and surrounded by roman columns, was closed for renovations. The indoor pool was pretty spectacular though. Beautifully tiled, as in the walls, the floor, the pool, with marble steps leading into the pool and a diving board at the end. Oh, all surrounded by classic Greek sculptures of naked men.
After the lavishness of the castle, we made for the human-ness of Paso Robles. A small town on the way to our next stop. Without boring details, I needed to see a doctor and our travel insurance pointed us to an ‘urgent care’ centre, which are like our 24 medical centres. It was a 2 hour wait though and $130+. So my fabulous Floridian friend Connie, suggested I use a new app called ‘DoctorOnDemand’. Now, I wouldn’t even be writing here about needing a doctor aside from the fact that this app blew our minds! You download from the App Store, you sign up with your credit card details, click on ‘appointment’ and fill out a few details and then wait about two minutes. A doctor (somewhere in the US), reads your file and then you video conference with them. They ask you lots of questions, get you to do this and that, use the camera to show them things if you need to etc. They make a diagnosis (or tell you to go to a physical doctor) and if you need a script, they fax it to the chemist of your choice. How easy is that! You could do this from the comfort of your own home, bugger needing to go out when you are crook. We need this in Australia. It was $75.00 and that was it. We took off for the local chemist and grabbed a script. the most painful part of this entire process was the fact that it took the chemist 40 minutes to dispense tablets for three people. Seems that this is the norm. Mind you, you have to fill out forms about privacy and blah blah just to get the pills. The lady behind the counter was most interested in my Aussie drivers license and my explanation about DrOnDemand as she had never heard of it. So, three people working in the chemist. One to take the prescription, one to fill the prescription and one to give you the prescription. Bizarre, especially considering how long that process took.
Anyway, lunch was necessary after all of this and we found a great little diner. The owners must have been stuck somewhere in the 50s as it was straight out of a Happy Days set. Booths, black and white checkered tiles, jukebox, the whole deal. So, while at a classic diner, one must have milkshakes and burgers. We had to ask for half the amount of cream on the milkshake (as it really was one of those ones with whipped cream overflowing with a cherry on top) and it was the thickest milkshake I’ve ever had. Chocolate Malt of course. The burger was yummy but we were glad we decided to share it. The meal was still too big and we left a little of everything behind.
Back on the road to Bakersfield, which was our overnight stop to make the drive a little less full-on. There’s not much in Bakersfield. It seems that it’s just the stop over town for most people on the road. There was a Denny’s next door so we decided to try that. Don’t. We’ve struggled with the all-American things so far: Denny’s = no, S’Mores = no, Twinkies = no, ranch dressing on everything = no, coffee anywhere = no. Everything outside these things has been fabulous though! (Just seriously, don’t do Denny’s).
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