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| Our appointment was initially for after 10, but we decided we should turn up when it opened at 8 to see if we could change to the earlier tour to make it down the road quicker. This was OK, so we hopped on a tour bus for the windy journey up to the castle. The place was amazing! It was foggy at that time in the morning too, so it added to the eeriness of the place. Usually the views are spectacular, but I preferred the spooky I think. It was an interesting tour too. Our guide was relatively funny which helped I suppose. |
| A lot of the art he had was imported from Europe (where he spent some of his childhood) via dealers in the US. Lots of Roman stuff, and old tapestrys and the like. The building itself was a mix of styles. Which reminds me, I must find out more about the architect Julia Morgan. I was more than impressed with what she'd done with the place (tee hee) and between the family and her, what she achieved for women in general. |
| The tour lasted nearly two hours and never seemed rushed. We went back down the hill and popped into a theatre where we saw a little film about Hearst and his story. It may have been better to have seen the film first, but it helped with some of the detail at least. |
| We got back to the motel and went for breakfast across the road. Then we checked out and made off down the coast a little more. The plan was to make it to Wolf Mountain that evening. We got gas in a little place called Harmony. It was here that Santana realised she had forgotten some of her pills so we had to go back to the diner. Pills collected we started off again. In the direction of Santa Barbara. |