'Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you..'
Alright, so it's not a place but this lovely Gershwin song has been in my head all day today. We went to William Randolph Hearst's Ranch at San Simeon and I have been imagining all the larks that went on there. Darlings, the glamour! If only we could have experienced it for real.
I'd given the 'Enchanted Hill' such a build up to Adrian that I feared he would be disappointed. Foolish really, as one could not fail to be impressed by it all. WR didn't begin work on the castle until he was 56 (same as me- hope yet) although his father had bought the land many years before and the family camped there. Proper posh camping though, with lots of servants. William decided to build 'a little something' on the hill. That 'little something ' turned out to have 62 bathrooms just in the main house, not including 'the cottages'!
He built it in what he called 'mediterranean ' style. He bought unimaginable treasures from Spain, Italy, Greece and France. Including ceilings and fireplaces. It is all quite unbelievable. The scale of it is staggering and everything in it, every exquisite treasure is the real McCoy. Incongruously, he always used paper napkins and had ketchup bottles on the table. It was never properly finished although he was working on it for thirty years before his death. What WR really loved was the creative process and he was continually changing things. I can fully understand that!
My dears, the parties! Everyone in the world who had achieved anything was invited to stay, including Winston Churchill. Now there's a thing. A top politician hobnobbing with the leading Press Baron of the day. I sat by the Neptune pool and tried to imagine the laughter and frivolity that went on there (must remodel our pool) hence the Gershwin. Apparently, 'The Chief' only liked couples who were married to share a bed. Unless it was him, of course. The loveliest bits, for me, were the staggeringly beautiful and fragrant gardens with glorious views across to the sea. There was a mile long, yes, that's right, a mile long pergola!
We spent five hours there, it could have been more but we have a tight agenda here. Route 1 from San Simeon up to Carmel has to be the most magnificent bit of coastal road in the world. The road clings on to the steep cliffs that plummet towards the sea. There are numerous guano covered rocky islets and great, fat, sea lions sunbathing on the beaches. Pelicans fly overhead and vivid wild flowers are prolific. It is a very twisty road and a pleasure to drive. We passed some fairly major landslips (shades of Sikkim in April, but mercifully fewer) where there were huge engineering feats being constructed.
In Carmel it is probably against the law for the trees to drop their leaves it is all so immaculate. Clint Eastwood was famously Mayor there. So on to Monterey. Sadly, the sardine canning industry died out due to over fishing. And now all the old factories are rather tacky shops and restaurants. We moved a little north for the night to Marina Dunes. A long day but another magnificent one.
I'd given the 'Enchanted Hill' such a build up to Adrian that I feared he would be disappointed. Foolish really, as one could not fail to be impressed by it all. WR didn't begin work on the castle until he was 56 (same as me- hope yet) although his father had bought the land many years before and the family camped there. Proper posh camping though, with lots of servants. William decided to build 'a little something' on the hill. That 'little something ' turned out to have 62 bathrooms just in the main house, not including 'the cottages'!
He built it in what he called 'mediterranean ' style. He bought unimaginable treasures from Spain, Italy, Greece and France. Including ceilings and fireplaces. It is all quite unbelievable. The scale of it is staggering and everything in it, every exquisite treasure is the real McCoy. Incongruously, he always used paper napkins and had ketchup bottles on the table. It was never properly finished although he was working on it for thirty years before his death. What WR really loved was the creative process and he was continually changing things. I can fully understand that!
My dears, the parties! Everyone in the world who had achieved anything was invited to stay, including Winston Churchill. Now there's a thing. A top politician hobnobbing with the leading Press Baron of the day. I sat by the Neptune pool and tried to imagine the laughter and frivolity that went on there (must remodel our pool) hence the Gershwin. Apparently, 'The Chief' only liked couples who were married to share a bed. Unless it was him, of course. The loveliest bits, for me, were the staggeringly beautiful and fragrant gardens with glorious views across to the sea. There was a mile long, yes, that's right, a mile long pergola!
We spent five hours there, it could have been more but we have a tight agenda here. Route 1 from San Simeon up to Carmel has to be the most magnificent bit of coastal road in the world. The road clings on to the steep cliffs that plummet towards the sea. There are numerous guano covered rocky islets and great, fat, sea lions sunbathing on the beaches. Pelicans fly overhead and vivid wild flowers are prolific. It is a very twisty road and a pleasure to drive. We passed some fairly major landslips (shades of Sikkim in April, but mercifully fewer) where there were huge engineering feats being constructed.
In Carmel it is probably against the law for the trees to drop their leaves it is all so immaculate. Clint Eastwood was famously Mayor there. So on to Monterey. Sadly, the sardine canning industry died out due to over fishing. And now all the old factories are rather tacky shops and restaurants. We moved a little north for the night to Marina Dunes. A long day but another magnificent one.
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