I woke up in the middle of the night, worried that today might not go as planned. I had scheduled a very tight but wonderful itinerary and everything had to work on schedule. Amazingly, it did.
There is so much to say about today that I have to break it into two parts in order to post.
We caught an Uber at 7:45 to pick up a rental car at 8. They were expecting us and by 8:15 we were back at the Garden Inn having a delicious breakfast. They served us an egg frittata with strawberry cake. They made sure we knew upon checking in that they are a “meatless” establishment. Since it is a B & B, we sat with others including a criminal defense attorney. (Note: SLO has a huge men’s prison nearby.)
By 9 am we had checked out, bags in car, and headed for Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The drive was beautiful and not the curvy, hilly road we were anticipating. We arrived early for our timed tickets and they put us on another tour, giving us more time there.
The Castle is now a California state park, which it has been since 1951, and the state is in charge of the tours. They are very efficiently run and there are several different ones. Unlike the Biltmore in Asheville, where you can tour most of the house, here you only see part of the house on the introductory “grand rooms” tour, which is $25. You can pay extra to see the other rooms, but today, this was enough.
The Castle sits on top of a hill with a parking lot and elaborate visitor center below, a short distance from the turn off on Hwy 1. Tour groups average about 50 people and travel in buses up to the castle. There you are met by a guide who takes you on the tour. Tours depart every 10 minutes.
Our guide was immediately likable and reminded us of Jack Black. I assume the guides are chosen not only for their speaking ability but also for their theatrical skills.
As the bus traverses the switchback road up the hill, you can see the Castle coming into view.
Up the hill!
The Castle!
The estate originally included 250,000 acres. The house is 65,000 sq. ft. with 115 rooms, 38 of which are guest rooms. The smallest room is 1,300 sq. ft., the size of many homes. It also includes a library, kitchen, movie theater and living quarters for household staff.
In 1919, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863-1947) hired renown San Francisco architect Julia Morgan to build a hilltop house in the Mediterranean Revival Style on what he called his “ranch at San Simeon.” It actually was a ranch that was purchased in 1865 by his father, who made his fortune in South Dakota mining. His parents had moved to San Francisco in the early 1860s and William spent many occasions vacationing at the property while growing up.
The view of the coast from the hill is spectacular.
Our tour began with the Neptune Pool, probably the most recognizable image associated with the home.
The pool was constructed between 1924-1936 and is the last of 3 different pools that existed on this site. This pool is 104 ft. long and ranges in depth from 3-10 ft. For years it leaked hundred of gallons of water. Then several years ago, at the height of the drought in California, the state finally fixed it.
As we walked toward the main part of the house, known as Casa Grande, we can see it resembles the architecture of Southern Spain, with its bell towers designed like a cathedral in Rhonda, Spain.
It is made of limestone over board in steel reinforced concrete with twice as much steel as is normally used in construction, thus withstanding many earthquakes. At one time the house had 25,000 antiquities in its collection and only 20 were ever damaged by earthquakes. When Hearst lived here, he had the largest collection of antiquities in the US. Many items were sold when he went into debt in the 1940s but he was able to keep his newspaper empire.
We crossed an outdoor veranda with another view and up some stairs to a side entrance to enter the house.
Our tour continues in the next blog post.
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