Hearst Castle

This was another fine weekend. AJ and I started again, in his BMW, to a castle known as Hearst Castle. There were two distinct routes to the Castle but we took 1, as it was supposed to be a beautiful drive. After having a good breakfast, off we started on our long journey, with the hope of seeing some of mother nature's beauty. After driving for almost 30 mins, all we saw was block houses on either side of the road with the occasional glimpse at the woods. But soon, the entire landscape changed, and the ocean with its dark blue colour came in sight. The water lashing against the rocks, made a sound which was somehow nice on the ears and the view was absolutely stunning. With the tall mountains on one side and the deep wide ocean on the other, this was going to be one heck of a drive. As far as you can see, it was just blue, blue and dark blue till the mighty pacific looked like it merged with the heavens. In fact when the sun coated the ocean with it's beams it gave out a variety of colours - which cannot be explained in words!. It was sight to behold! And once in a while the rocks would break apart to form sunny white beaches with huge dunes of sand. At this time of the year, you can even see whales breaking the surface every now and then. Going further down this fantastic road, we came across more wooded forests which formed a kinda tunnel with trees, only to emerge on the other end and see the ocean again. We continued our drive, and soon enough - though it was a long drive - we saw the castle on top of a hill! How the heck are we gonna get there?

By the time we reached the Castle, it was late in the afternoon, but we hoped to have a good time and then get back home soon enough to get some shut eye before the week started again. We entered the gates expecting a few people here and there, but to our horror saw a packed parking lot and lotsa people everywhere. Was this place a national monument or something?? There were huge groups waiting to get into the mall like "visiting center" (don't ask me- that's what it's called!). Then we realized we had to buy tickets and get on the tour bus which takes us to the top of the mountain and to the castle. But as luck would have it, we missed the last bus by a couple of minutes :( Cursing our luck, we moved over to the theatre (yes, the have one in the 'Visiting Center'!) to watch a movie about the castle, and that went on for a hour. It took us through Hearst's life from a little boy with a big dream, to an old man partying with his friends in the castle.

This Hearst fellow, as a boy traveled to different places in Europe and loved all the ancient architecture and wanted to build something really grand - like no other castle - and there stands the result, in the middle of San Simeon! This Castle had everything you ever wanted - right from tennis courts to a big roman swimming pool. Why, it even had a Zoo! -That should answer all the questions! After the movie was over, we grabbed something to eat - there were lots of cafe's there - saw the castle from a distance, and then stared on our journey again, but this time through a shorter, bland route. This took us through some wineries, where you can taste for free, and some towns where selling wines must have been the major business. Soon, after a rather bland drive, we reached Campbell and had a quick dinner and then hit the sack - waiting for another tiring week at work!