Thu 17 Jan - Buellton, CA

Time for Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We both have been there before, but the place is so over the top and fun that we had to go back.

So, we had our breakfast at the hostel, after a much better sleep in our almost luxurious private room, packed up and loaded the car, and were then on our way. The distance from San Luis Obispo and San Simeon is about 43 miles in a pretty straight line north.

You stop and park the car down on the flat, before purchasing tickets to your selected tour (3 different options) in their visitors centre and wait for a bus to take you up the very winding route to the castle at the top. By the way, we learnt that William Randolph Hearst never called it his "castle". He called it the enchanted hill, in Spanish, after camping here as a child. Clearly his affection for the place came early.

This next photo is taken from the visitors centre with a long lense so there is some distance involved.

The buses crawling up or down the hill, photo taken from the top.

And here we are, the main building is behind us.

Di outside the entrance.

We had opted for the grand rooms tour, which covers the ground floor in the main building. What a place. Very beautiful and very over the top at the same time. We learnt that Hearst always paid for all his treasures and never circumvented any laws. This, of course, was from an era when national heritage was not on the agenda and importing as he did would be impossible today. It also makes it difficult for European countries to claim back any of the treasures today as the transactions were all legal at the time.

The tapestry on the wall in the centre below is by Rubens. The room is the cocktail room where you gathered before having dinner and he was not pretentious.

The dining room is in the next 3 pictures, and yes, Hearst loved ketchup. Mustard was the preferred salad dressing at the time. They came is perfectly good containers so that's what was used.

These next 2 pictures were from Hearst's cinema salon. Statues like that is what you have all around your own private movie theatre.

After the tour, one is free to explore the grounds... Hans liked these statues.

Hearst had an outdoor pool...

... As well as an indoor Roman Bath.

Flooring in the Roman Bath. The gold mosaics from Venice. Who knows how many mosaic tiles there were, but there were lots.

It took Mr Hearst 28 years to build this place and its not quite all finished (a gym was also on the agenda near the roman pool).

William Randolph Hearst, or Willie as he was called :-), was way ahead of his time, using local craftsmen and materials, treating all as equals and getting seriously wealthy through mining and ranching. He had an equivalent annual income today of US$200 Billion! Great stories abound. For example he was asked by an employee whether he lost any stock in the crash of the Great Depression he replied " well as you very well know, we keep our stock on this ranch and eat it for lunch." He owned companies but never shares. He believed in the working rich and hated the word "servant". He thought it was arrogant and rude. As a result "room service" was prohibited.

An English gentleman guest once phoned to ask for tea and biscuits at midnight. The employees said no but then conceded by allowing him to come to the kitchen back door so that he could eat with the staff. A big favour for a Mr Winston Churchill.

After the Hearst experience, it was back to the real world and lunch.

We drove south for a bit before we found a lovely little town called Cayucos. By the beach, they had this great little smokehouse, were they offered smoked fish in tacos. Hans had a smoked salmon taco and Di had a smoked shrimp taco. Very nice indeed, with lettuce and pieces of apple and hot chili sauce. Very pleasant to sit there in the sun along the beach promenade.

Across the street from the smokehouse was this little cookie shop. Di ventured in to try the "famous" brown butter and sea salt cookies, which you could try. Had to buy a few. Hans stayed outside for some photos. The cookie shop had this lovely little spot just outside for relaxation.

There was also this shop in Cayucos where you can buy a neon sign for your favorite brew.

Time to hit the road again, and tonight's destination, Buellton, in LA wine country, in an area heavily influenced by a Danish heritage.

We had booked a place at Pea Soup Andersen Inn. Yep, that's the name. It just had to be roadtested.

Great spot. We tried out the spa in the far right corner of the photo below, before Hans ventured out to the service station just outside our motel to pick up some milk and beer. Well, this being US, they had so much beer to choose from, but only one single bottle of milk for sale, a 600ml. So, one of each it was.

Here is Hans on the balcony enjoying his Modelo cerveza (he did share a little with Di) before tonight's star attraction, a visit to Hitching Post restaurant, the one featured in the movie Sideways.

In the Sideways movie, the boys are walking along car dealerships to and from the restaurant so here we are. Our motel is 1km away in a straight line from the Hitching Post so walking was a good choice as we wanted to drink wine.

Drum roll...

Well, the interior is like the movie. Perhaps not this girl though.

The Hitching Post does the "worlds best BBQ steaks" as the sign said outside. We got a table where we looked right into this guy doing the cooking, and he certainly looked like he knew what he was doing. We ordered steak of course, Sirloin that you could order in 4 sizes.

The steaks arrived and we asked Tammy, our waiter, to take a photo of us before we tucked in....

Funny loos at the Hitching Post. No privacy if you do number 2. A curtain is all that's there for privacy. Di later found a sign at the women's explaining that this was to cater for wheel chair bound customers. The whole restroom can be locked and they can have it all to themselves. In the mean time...

Does this bar look familiar? The boys in the Sideways movie were here a few times. This is where the bartender said "and it's good to see you". Notice the guy peeking out on the left? Nice to have our chef in the photo but he's probably thinking "oh no, not another tourist".

We walked back to Pea Soup Andersen motel along the highway and car dealerships and American food chains etc after a very pleasant evening. Very fun. And now we are very full, so good night.

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