Peter and Yvonne in front of the restaurant where we ate last
night at the Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo.
Today's goal was Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. But there were a few detours planned along the way. Well, it's a holiday - what did you expect!
Peter and Yvonne in front of the restaurant where we ate last
night at the Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo.
Peter doing his morning gymnastics! The Inn is nicely kept,
and quite a contrast to the dry country around, although the
hill in the distance looks somewhat green. Not Washington state
green, but green nonetheless.
Yvonne admiring the plants. The Madonna Inn keeps the grounds
in immaculate conditions.
The building where we stayed. I think we were in the section
disappearing behind the trees on the right. Note that the
hill behind is more "California green" than that two photos above.
The view from our rooms, looking over the Inn's reception area.
And another brown hill.
We joined our tour by boarding the bus to take us up the hill
to the Castle. This is about the first view of the estate
on the way up.
It is quite a long way up! And the road is not a freeway, either.
And this
detailed view
shows some of the property.
Upon reaching the top, we leave the bus and join our guide.
The first part of the tour is the "do not walk off the carpet,
do not ..." sort of stuff. Then we head out to oversee the
area from the "front" of the estate. This view is looking towards
the historic town of San Simeon, which is not quite visible,
but would be behind the head - on the bay. Most of the material
for construction was shipped through San Simeon. And the
visitor centre is the collection of trees behind the trunk of
the close tree! The trees around the parking lot of the visitor
centre really hide the cars, helping to keep the view as much
as possible as William Randolph Hearst would have known it.
Looking north along the coast shows an airstrip, which belongs
to the Hearst Family, who still own the land surrounding the
State Park. And you can also see the road winding its way to the top.
Looking south along the coast. There's some haze obscuring the view;
quite possibly natural. And that tree in the middle looks like
a eucalyptus tree - they are quite common in California to
just north of San Francisco.
Our tour guide explaining some feature or other. Note the
lamp posts - very definite old European flavour. Old as in ancient
Rome, or perhaps Greece. But probably modern origin - they look
like cement (althougih, of course, the Romans had cement, though
I doubt they made lamp posts with it).
Our tour group in front of "Casa del Sol". And I'd say it
had a really nice afternoon sun aspect.
Case del Sol (House of the Sun) - quite a nice house on its own,
but this was "just" a guesthouse! Although I think this is the
house where Hearsts spent most of their time.
We was there!
And from about the same position, the outdoor swimming pool.
Case del Sol is off to the right from this image.
RtW Tour Page
Swimming Pool