Jane Reporting for 9th September
Yesterday we set out early-early for Hearst Castle as our tour was booked for 10am and it was a 2.5 hour drive. Breakfast at 6am, on the road by 6.40.
The drive to the castle was marred by the sea fog (which seems to be a feature of this time of this time of year along the California coast) but we still arrived a little ahead of schedule and set out on an earlier tour. It's a very slick operation with buses going up and down to the castle and tour guides in all directions.
We took the Grand Rooms tour and though impressive in their way I wasn't much taken with the castle itself. The grounds and the guest cottages, the pools and the squirrel - they were much more my sort of thing.
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| Hearst Castle Guest Cottages |
The three guest 'cottages' are set among the gardens alongside the castle itself and rejoice in the names Casa del Monte, Casa del Sol, and Casa del Mar. The 'castle' was names Casa Grande. Here's a link to the Hearst Castle website showing where they are located:
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| Hearst Castle Guest Cottages - Detail |
The smallest cottage had four bedrooms and the larger two had eight each but the best thing about the was how beautifully they were set in the garden, which itself was made up of little paths bringing the visitor to a variety of spaces and features.
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| Hearst Castle Guest Cottages |
There was a Cottages and Kitchens tour and without doubt if we are ever back this way I would visit Hearst Castle again to take that tour.
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| Hearst Castle Guest Cottages - Detail |
Although there were non-stop tours running (as we left a room another tour group arrived hard on our heels) by the time everybody was wandering around the tiled paths and steps in the gardens the clever design meant it didn't feel like there was a crowd - though I did catch sight of these three on a lower level:
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| Geoff, Lyn, and Gary at Hearst Castle |
I loved all the tilework around the place, but adding a special bit of colour to the terracotta of the paths were the tiles in the step risers. Here's one example:
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| Detail - Tilework in the Step Risers |
I took very few photos of the inside of the castle (and most of those for Lyn as I have the camera that handles the low light situations the best) but many more of the cottages and gardens ... but most were taken of the squirrel! I tracked him from one side of the garden to the other, take a million shots that featured the end of a grey tail before he kindly settled down for a drink and I was able to get head and tail in the same photo:
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| The Squirrel |
Apparently he is a California Grey Squirrel and I must say he couldn't be living in a nice spot.
While I was busy photographing the squirrel I completely missed visiting the Neptune Pool so here are a couple of Gary's photos:
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| The Neptune Pool |
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| The Neptune Pool (Guest Cottage upper right) |
We did all get back together at the Roman pool, one thing I particularly wanted to see at Hearst Castle:
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| The Roman Pool |
This was absolutely beautiful but showing signs of wear and damage. There's a tennis court on its roof which Gary declares is as bad as a flat roof on an Art Deco home. Certainly the roof is showing signs of problems to come. I hope it can be repaired because it's a magnificent feature.
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| The Roman Pool |
After Hearst Castle we set off along the coast road to Monterey. Rather reminiscent of driving along the Kaikoura coast at home for 2+ hours (!) this would have been a beautiful drive if the fog had given up, but no, it was determined to stick with us so we could see very little. Here's one of Lyn's photos showing Gary taking a photo - and the limited visibility.
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| On the Coast Road between San Simeon and Monetery |
Some days there's not much to say, others it seems like one blog post is never going to be long enough to record everything we did and yesterday was one of those.
In Monterey we had an great meal at the London Bridge Pub, sitting out on their patio. Gary had cottage pie and I finished up with an awesome brownie sundae.
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| Excellent Meal |
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| Great Location |
After tea we went for a walk down Cannery Row which was light up with all sorts of light strings so it looked (to my eye) like Christmas.
Getting a bit colder now.
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