San Luis Obispo - San Simeon - Los Angeles - Day 13 (continued)

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 (continued)

There were so many great photos today that I had to split the day in thirds to correspond to the app.

To catch the bus back to the visitor center, one is treated to a final treasure — the Indoor Roman Pool.

It consists of more than a million Murano glass tiles, some of which contain a layer of gold leaf inside. 

The main basin of the pool is 81 ft. long and 10 ft. deep. The pictures tell the story.

On the way back on the bus, we could see the remains of the private zoo that once was located on the grounds.

Back at the visitor center, we bought salads to take with us. We made it back to Enterprise in an hour and the staff generously took us to the train station. (Rental was only $35.) No lunch at the station and a block away I found a small cafe named Sally Loo (my dad called me Sallie Lou - my middle birth name being Louise.) Never seen it before. I bought a made to order sandwich and made it back in time for our train.

We boarded at 3:20 and headed for Los Angeles.  We had the comfort seats again and settled in for the 6-hour trip. The scenery along the coast was beautiful and, again, the time flew by. 

We ended up eating our prepared salads for dinner, since we weren’t impressed with the dining car food. We arrived in LA around 7:30 and then waited in the station for another train at 10:30 to take us to Anaheim. We made it to the Embassy Suites at 11:30. What a full day!

San Luis Obispo - San Simeon - Los Angeles - Day 13 (continued)

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

This is a second posting of Day 13 and there will be a third. So much to see!

We entered the house from a side door.  Our tour took us first into the Assembly Room, where guests would gather before dinner. It appeared that Hearst had tried to fill every square inch of space with art including 16th century tapestries, Gothic and Renaissance furniture and Greek pottery. Even the ceilings were ornate. It was hard to take it all in. Our tour did not describe any of the artifacts but left them for our own perusal.

Next we went to the dining room, which could seat 24.  The flags have no special meaning and are just for decoration. 

Beyond that was the “morning room,” which was never used in the morning but usually at 10 pm for socializing after dinner. Although the hey-day of the Castle was in the 20s and prohibition was in effect, drinks were still served — usually gin, scotch and rum. 

The fourth room was the Billiards Room 

and finally the theater. It was common after dinner for guests to watch a movie. In the 1920s, this was still considered a new and popular entertainment.

I thought the holes cut into the fabric in the back for lights and projector were amusing.

Our tour ended there and we were free to wander the grounds indefinitely. We walked to the other side of the main building,

along the Esplanade, which is highlighted with palm and citrus trees, boxwood hedges and Coast Live Oaks, which are native to the area.  

We saw the 3 cottages built nearby, which are equally elaborate, to house guests.  

The views everywhere were spectacular.

To catch the bus back to the visitor center, one is treated to a final treasure and I have to put it and the rest of the day in a third posting.

San Luis Obispo - San Simeon - Los Angeles - Day 13

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

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.