A visit to Hearst Castle
On the second day of my arrival in the States, while I'm still experiencing jet-lag, there was a plan to visit Hearst Castle. I've been warned that the road to San Simeon is very winding because it is a coastal road, following along the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As I do not want to miss any chance of having fun, I tagged along.
The distance to San Simeon from San Jose is about 171miles (275km), which is around 3 and a half hours of driving.
All the way there, I was very sleepy and my eyes are tired. I also got a little bit of car sick thanks to the extremely winding road.
Hearst Castle is a state historical monument, storing a large collection of art resulting from a rich man's hobby. There's a long list of history about this man and his family which I've summarize what I can remember into a short story.
Hearst Castle is a house owned by a very rich man named William Randolph Hearst. His father found a kind of ore (silver) hundreds of years ago someplace near San Francisco. With the money, his father bought a lot of property and one of the property happens to be where this castle was built. Mr Hearst interest in collecting arts begins when he followed his mummy for a one-year tour to Europe when he was 10 years old. You know lar, see all the Renaissance architecture and art, Greek history, paintings and etc etc. See those for one year wor, of course fall in love lar...
Then later he begin building this castle. He hired a female architect to design his house. This female architect is the first female who obtained degree in architecture. Last time, women were not allowed to attend school and were not allowed to vote, but Julia Morgan did it. I really admire her. Ok, end of history lesson. Actually the history is much more interesting than this and there are a lot to write if I were to cover all. Go to the official website HERE if interested.
So this rich man built one house after another and he ended having 4 buildings on top of the hill.
3 of the buildings are guest house and one main house. The buildings are named Casa del Sol, Casa del Mar, Casa del Monte and Casa del Grande (main house).
There are many nude statues found everywhere around the houses, inside and outside. What to do? Art mar.....Most of the statue up on the hill were carved from marble, real white and smooth marble. Photography in the building are not allowed to use flash because the art piece and statue are so valuable, they are all more than 100 years old.
Photos taken in and around Hearst Castle are extremely beautiful, no kidding. Unfortunately, I'm not able to share it out on this blog as they have strict photography rules. Photos are for personal use only, no publication is allowed. I don't want to be involved in a $1million law suit. :P
To go into the castle and it's surrounding, we've to sign up for a tour. There are few different tours available and the one we sign up is The Experience Tour. It cost $18 per person which includes bus ride up the hill, enter 2 of the 4 Casa, and a ticket to watch the National Geographic movie Hearst Castle Building the Dream (40mins I think). The guide would bring us around, explain the history and stuff to us. The tour last for 1hr 45mins.
More photos with caption available on my online photo album here: Hearst Castle (Try the slideshow full screen, F11)
P.S. No photo taken in Hearst Castle is published, pls don't sue me. I'll remove the photos if they are deem illegal.
The distance to San Simeon from San Jose is about 171miles (275km), which is around 3 and a half hours of driving.
All the way there, I was very sleepy and my eyes are tired. I also got a little bit of car sick thanks to the extremely winding road.
Arriving at the visitor centre
Hearst Castle is a state historical monument, storing a large collection of art resulting from a rich man's hobby. There's a long list of history about this man and his family which I've summarize what I can remember into a short story.
Hearst Castle is a house owned by a very rich man named William Randolph Hearst. His father found a kind of ore (silver) hundreds of years ago someplace near San Francisco. With the money, his father bought a lot of property and one of the property happens to be where this castle was built. Mr Hearst interest in collecting arts begins when he followed his mummy for a one-year tour to Europe when he was 10 years old. You know lar, see all the Renaissance architecture and art, Greek history, paintings and etc etc. See those for one year wor, of course fall in love lar...
Then later he begin building this castle. He hired a female architect to design his house. This female architect is the first female who obtained degree in architecture. Last time, women were not allowed to attend school and were not allowed to vote, but Julia Morgan did it. I really admire her. Ok, end of history lesson. Actually the history is much more interesting than this and there are a lot to write if I were to cover all. Go to the official website HERE if interested.
So this rich man built one house after another and he ended having 4 buildings on top of the hill.
3 of the buildings are guest house and one main house. The buildings are named Casa del Sol, Casa del Mar, Casa del Monte and Casa del Grande (main house).
There are many nude statues found everywhere around the houses, inside and outside. What to do? Art mar.....Most of the statue up on the hill were carved from marble, real white and smooth marble. Photography in the building are not allowed to use flash because the art piece and statue are so valuable, they are all more than 100 years old.
Photos taken in and around Hearst Castle are extremely beautiful, no kidding. Unfortunately, I'm not able to share it out on this blog as they have strict photography rules. Photos are for personal use only, no publication is allowed. I don't want to be involved in a $1million law suit. :P
To go into the castle and it's surrounding, we've to sign up for a tour. There are few different tours available and the one we sign up is The Experience Tour. It cost $18 per person which includes bus ride up the hill, enter 2 of the 4 Casa, and a ticket to watch the National Geographic movie Hearst Castle Building the Dream (40mins I think). The guide would bring us around, explain the history and stuff to us. The tour last for 1hr 45mins.
The bus that took us up the hill
All those Casa on top of the hill
Beautiful skyline as the sun sets into the ocean...more sunset photo in photo album (link below)
On our way back, we stop-by Carmel-by-the-sea for dinner. What a nice name for a place rite? Carmel-by-the-Sea is rated a top-ten destination in US by Conde Nast Traveller, whoever that is. By the time we finish dinner, it was already around 9pm. I then sleep all the way back to San Jose. Reach SJ around 11pm.More photos with caption available on my online photo album here: Hearst Castle (Try the slideshow full screen, F11)
P.S. No photo taken in Hearst Castle is published, pls don't sue me. I'll remove the photos if they are deem illegal.
Labels: Going places, Life in The States
posted by LieWei at 8:17 PM
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