Hearst castle

Hearst castle is an example of more money than sense, which Bill Bryson writes about in his 'At Home' which I'm currently reading.  Hearst went round the auction houses buying up Spanish chapel ceilings, Italian monastery interiors, Flemish wall tapestries etc There are 20,000 historic items in there apparently. 

I was more interested in the acorn woodpeckers in the palm trees outside, but we had a tour to see the swimming pools (exterior & interior), one guest cottage, the dining room and I can't remember what else.  In his dining room he had an Irish mace in pride of place, and flags from the Italian Palio race.  Quite bizarre.






The place was given to the state by the Hearst family, but the state sensibly said it would only retain it if it paid for itself.  And with 4 different tours running hourly, it makes a small profit.  I'm pleased to have seen it, especially as earlier in the year when visiting pubs with Hugh & Angela we'd been past St Donat's Castle, which Hearst bought for a mistress.  Bill Bryson relates that when he told his wife the castle was Norman, she asked Norman who, boom boom.

We left San Simeon to go onto our B&B,  where at breakfast we met a lovely American couple who honeymooned in Cromer last March! (Meant to go to London, but it was booked so got Cromer instead, enjoyed the pubs & Felbrigg Hall amongst other things).  As we went to Ireland for our honeymoon, and did similar things, it sounded good.