On seeing it for the first time, I gasped 'Oh...' and without missing a beat, Sofia finished off my sentence with ...'my god'. Hee hee. Totally cracked me up! We were looking at the Neptune pool at the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The pool really is one of a kind. It stretches out in front of you in all its splendour. It overlooks the rolling hills from the 'Casa Grande' all the way down to the Pacific ocean. I can only imagine the pool parties they must have had there in the 50's.
It was 15 years ago, when I was teaching for Berlitz in Korea, that I first read about this place and I had always wanted to visit it.
It sits perched up on a hill on 250,000 acres of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean. William Randolf Hearst's family made their fortune in silver mining, then bought up the land and ran cattle - which they still do today. It wasn't until his parents passed that he, aged in his 50's, finally started building the house(s). Strangely, its not tacky. After WW2, he bought up a stack of antiques, tapestries, paintings, furniture etc from Europe and filled his Casa Grande and his 3 smaller guest houses. It's all rather lovely but it is the swimming pool that really takes your breath away.
The original San Simeon is the closest town which consists of a post office, school, bar and pier. A bit down the road you now have a lovely collection of motels and a few restaurants, but the area basically hasn't changed much in 70 years.
Obviously Ale had noooo interest in seeing the place, so I left him splashing around in the motel pool which made him incredibly happy!
Such great photos Charlie that I feel like I could trip over and slip into the pool.I'm loving the twisty Corinthian-y column in the background.I just want to touch it all.
ReplyDeletexx Danielle