So what's been going on? well let's go ...
Trip Start
Aug 08, 2002
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27
64
Trip End
Feb 01, 2004
San Jose, California, United States
Saturday, November 9, 2002
We headed down to Hearst Castle, which is about half-way between San Jose and Los Angeles on the coast (and not near any sizeable towns or cities). It was built by William Randolph Hearst, who was a media mogul in the late 1800s/early 1900s (not unlike Rupert Murdoch today). By the 1940s he had aquired 36 newspapers, about 18 magazines, he had a radio broadcast company, a film production company and was making his way into TV. He used all this influence to help his move into politics, but stopped short of becoming President, still he was the Governor and Congressman for New York (on seperate occasions). He inherited a fortune from his father (a wealthy propector whose mine hit silver) but made a fortune on his own (twice, he lost it while building 'the castle' - at one point he was $127 million in debt - before borrowing some money and rebuilding it back to $250 million before his death in 1951). In 1873 his mother took him on a grand tour of Europe, this is when his taste for antiquities took hold, and then idea for the castle was planted.
In 1919, after the death of his mother, he inherited a 270,000 acre cattle ranch in San Simeon, he then approached a famous Californian architect called Julia Morgan with the idea for his castle. He wanted somewhere to store the vast collection of antiques he had collected from all the world, and he wanted something to rival the castles of Europe. Construction went on for 28 years, never actually being completed, with constant changes being suggested by Hearst, which meant ripping things out and rebuilding. What's left, is called Hearst Castle, although it isn't a castle by any normal standard, and was called 'La Cuesta Encantada,' the enchanted hill, by Hearst.
I have to say, it was a fascinating place. It's kind of Greco/Roman in overall feel, but the guides kept saying it was Mediterranean in design. He liked to mix and match styles somewhat though. It's filled with old antiques, and was home to a constantly changing ensemble of the rich and famous (Churchill and his wife visited, as did most of the Hollywood elite - Clark Gable, Mary Pickford, et al).
We drove 3 and a half hours to get there. Then you get a bus ride up from the visitors centre, where you pass from the cattle ranch into the gardens, which housed a zoo including Zebra (which can still be found roaming the cattle ranch apparently), black bears, grizzlies, lions, cougars, a polar bear, sea lions, tigers, deer, antelope and more besides. You also pass a large pathway, which was covered in Hearsts day so that people could drive or ride along in the shade if the sun to strong. The electricity was proved by a hydro-electric dam until it was connected to the mains supply, and water comes from three springs on the mountain top, by means of a gravity system (no pumps).
Our first stop on this tour (there are three), was the outdoor pool. The pool is 104 feet long, 54 feet wide and up to 10 feet deep. It is surrounded by Romanesque columns and, on one side, has a Roman temple fascade that Hearst bought as a kit on his travels and had erected by the pool. It also has a fabulous view, but then so does most of the estate. We had a quick stop on one of the terraces before heading into one of the guest lodges. There are three guest lodges and were where many of the single men and couples would stay when they visited, single women stayed in the main house. It was a complete mix of styles, with antiques from differen countries, time periods, and religions being mingled together. Next we headed for the main house. It may not look it, but all these building are made of concrete, with stone facades on them. The main house wasn't completed, and so you can see exposed concrete in places. Inside we went into the congregation room (where everone met for cocktails before dinner), the feasting room, the coffee lounge, the billiards room and the cinema. There were antiques strewn everywhere. It wouldn't have mattered how long I stayed in a room, I still wouldn't of spotted them all. The guide was furiously pointing them out, which left most of us straining left, right, up and down to see Belgian Tapestries, 400 yr old French Fireplaces, 600 yr Spanish Choir chairs, 500 yr Spanish ceilings, 200 yr old Mexican Candlesticks, 400 yr old Itailian ceilings, you get the point. In the feasting room you had a 400 yr old table, 200 yr old candlesticks, a 400 yr old ceiling and some 600 yr old choir chairs, and, in Hearsts time, tomato ketchup and mustard on the table. See what I mean about mix and match. We also had an interesting moment in the feasting room when the guide asked why people would want to sit next to Dorothy Lamore and dad instantly replied that 'two things spring to mind.' At this point several things happened - the guide seemed to stop in bewilderment, I instantly started to become fascinated in floor around the 400 yr old French fireplace, mother disowned him and moved away and everyone just didn't seem to believe someone would say something like that in public company. Thankfully, and only according to dad, no one seemed to hear him - or more likely - everyone chose to gloss over it and we got, ready for the next time he stuck his foot in his mouth. The cinema is where everyone would finish the evening; no one was allowed to go to bed before the evening film. This included staff, who, despite needing to get up early to make breakfast, had to stay up until 2:30 am with everyone else. We finished out tour in the indoor pool, something that looked like what I imagine ancient Roman baths to have looked like in their prime.
We only saw a bit of the place and I was awestruck. The house and the guest lodges are supposed to have about 90,080 sq ft of floor space spread between 56 bedrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 61 bathrooms and two pools. If you were lucky enough to get invited, you got a plan ride down and back all paid for (open ended ticket), you could swim, play tennis, horse ride, camp, drive and visit the zoo, amongst other things, but you had to play by Hearst's rules. For example, despite the fact that Hearst was married, but had a girlfriend, he didn't want the place used for rendezvous with lovers. If you came single, you stayed single, and you left single. If you came with someone, you stayed with that someone. Single women (as I said earlier) stayed in the main house, the single men being kept well outside. All this despite the fact that Hearst had his girlfriends room 60 ft from his, while his wife was 3000 miles away in New York. You were allowed to drink, but only in moderation (he abhored it, and especially as his girlfriend had a habit of doing stupid things when drunk). The cocktails before tea, for example, were limited to two per person. It didn't matter when you got there, you could only have two. Everyone had to attend the evening cinema screening, staff included, no exceptions. If you broke any of his rules, you were sent home in disgrace, and you probably stood a good chance of harming your career. Hearst had a lot of power, directly in Hollywood, indirectly everywhere else, through the press he owned. And for those of you who might think you know the story of Hearst, Orson Welles made a semi-biographical film about Hearst (totally unauthorised), called 'Citizen Kane'. Needless to say, his career suffered as a consequence. If you want to know more about Hearst Castle, and see some pictures, visit www.hearstcastle.org
Over the rest of the week though, we've also had some sort of elections. Thankfully they're now over, because we were all sick of the adverts for the various people/positions/directives. Instead of one or two things to vote on, and therefore be badgered about, there was a massive wave of things. So we had adverts for and against Gray Davis for re-election as Governor, and of course for his challenger. We had them for the Lt. Governor, we had them for flippin' education board members, councillors, judges and hell, probably postman if I'd paid more attention. On top of that, we had adverts telling us to vote yes on Measure I, or no on Proposition 52 (usually shortened to Prop 52, or 47, or 6, or...). Thankfully I didn't need to vote, because I wouldn't have remembered what my opinion was on each thing by the time I got to the voting booth! It took about about 10 minutes for the news to tell us the results the following day, and that was showing numerous votes per screen, and flashing them up every couple of seconds!
And of course, the first storm of the season hit. That means the sun went away for the first time since April/May and all hell broke loose. The news reported, after the worse night of the storm, that winds had gusted up to 50 mph, we had up to 4 inches of rain fall in some places and there was flood water up to 8 inches deep on some roads! May the lord preserve us! Because California isn't prepared for this sort of weather (the telephone and power lines are up on poles for example) the electricity company reported that at it's worst 500,000 customers were without power, and they had 3200 crews working 16-hour shifts around the clock to repair them (mainly due to fallen trees). We lost cable TV in two phases for about 2 hours - how can you loose cable TV, surely the stuff runs underground! We suspect it might have been the relay stations loosing power. They showed a section of California that was near a large rain gutter which had become blocked by debris, which cause flooding, which spread to local houses. They showed a shot of someone brushing water out of their carpet - not exactly the scenes we have in the UK where people's ground floor is under water! Talk about over-reacting, not a month ago, the UK is hit by 90+ mph winds and heavy flooding, and here they're getting hysterical over 8 inch floods because people have to slow down to drive through water that reaches half-way up their hubcaps!
Mind you thought, the UK appears to be getting quakes instead of California, and California is getting weather like the UK, just what the hell is going on? If anyone knows, could they tell me? To hell with it, I'm going to New Zealand.
