The Enchanted Hill

I have one week vacation and I only planned to go to local beaches. Monday while eating dinner, I suddenly remembered there is a beautiful castle on the central coast, but I can not remember the name, maybe it is a good idea to go there. I opened the google, yes, Hearst Castle. I made up my mind and booked the hotel on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, I am on the road to Hearst Castle. It is a hot day, over 100F in LA, but I am heading to the ocean, should be better.

I have been to Santa Barbara so many times that I can close my eyes driving there. Then use 154 to bypass 101and go directly to Santa Maria. Then use 101N to San Luis Obispo. Get off at CA-1 to Morro Bay, it will lead you to Heart Castle. I stayed at Morro Bay, a small fish down just down south of San Simeon to get some rest. I want to spend whole day Thursday at Hearst Castle.

Thursday morning I arrived at Hearst Castle. The earliest Grand Rooms Tour is already booked to 12:20pm. I decided to go on Cottage and Kitchen Tour first, which turned out it is not a bad idea. I love the wine cellar, the tour guide told us that the bottles standing up has no wine in it, but the bottles lying down still have the original wine in it. The sweat wine like Porto taste much better with aging, but other type of wine will turn into vinegar. The wine cellar is designed naturally to maintain a low temperature, no AC over there. 

Three beautiful cottages, Casa del Mar (House of the Sea), Casa del Sol (House of the Sun), and Casa del Monte (House of the Mountains). Each cottage was named for its view. Each cottage has bedrooms, bathrooms and sitting room, but no kitchen or dinning room. There are always 2 bathrooms next to each other. William Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies occupied Casa del Mar in his later years. There is no room service on the ground, if you need to eat, even just a snack, or a cup of tea or coffee, you have to go to the dining room in the main house. The tour guide told us, Mr. Hearst always told everyone who visited Hearst Castle, "I have no servants in this house, all I have is staff." Before Churchill became the Prime Minister of UK, he visited Hearst Castle one time. He wanted a cup of coffee and he phoned Mr. Hearst, asked the coffee to be brought to his room where he stayed. Mr. Hearst told him politely there is no room service or servants on the ground, if he wants some coffee, staff will prepare for him, but he has to go to the dining room to get it. Haha, I really like Mr. Hearst, the way he treated people.

Of course, the magnificent Kitchen. It has Frigidaire ice box, German beer maker, gigantic table warmer, electronic rotisserie, those are all very modern in the time they lived in. Most food are produced here right on the ranch.

The Grand Rooms Tour includes Assembly Room, Refectory (Dining Room), Morning Room, Billiard Room, and Theater in Casa Grande. Casa Grande is the main house, it has the Mediterranean Revival style, it is like a church or cathedral. If you have watched the movie "Hearst Castle, building the dream" before the tour, you will understand why Mr. Heart built his dream house this way. His trip with his mother to Europe at a very young age probably influenced him. I am just amazed by all the arts he had in this mansion from all over the world. The tour guide said Mr. Hearst bought lots of staff, he had several warehouse all over the world. Even after building The Hearst Castle, he still has several warehouse full of arts and antiques. It is a running joke that at any auction, if Mr. Hearst showed up, the price will at least double automatically. If he wants it, he will keep throwing money at it until it is his. There is one piece of painting in the Billiard Room, the tour guide that it is one of those pieces that he has to have, and he spent a fortune on that piece of painting.

Ms. Marion Davies one time told Mr. Hearst that she wants to play billiards, a few days later, 2 big billiard table hand-made in Chicago were shipped to the house, and it is surprise gift for her. The tour guide joked that is the boyfriend she wanted. Haha, that's the boyfriend everybody wanted!

One interesting story about the Mr. Hearst is whenever he invited anyone for dinner, he always sit in the middle and the guest of honor will sit at his right. He said in that way, he can talk to 4-5 people at one time instead of sitting at the end the table, you can only talk to 2 people. Where you sit at the dining table changes every night, the longer you stay, the further you sit on the table. Very interesting.

The oldest piece of art in the Castle is the Egyptian Goddness Sekhmet, it has been more than 3000 years old.

The beautiful Neptune Pool. The Pool is drained where I was there because of the California drought we are having, but is still an amazing art. There is art everywhere in this Castle.

There is another indoor Roman Pool right underneath the Tennis Court. It has more than 1 million Murano glass tiles, and some of them has a layer of gold leaf. The tour guide said, if it looks like gold anywhere in this Castle, it is Gold.

The view on top of the hill are amazing, the ocean, the mountain and the blue sky. The whole day I am immersed in the arts and view. If I knew the arts, architecture or the history better, I might appreciate more. It is already lots of information for me. But it is a place to come back to visit again. I guess I can not check this off my list yet, it probably will stay on my list.