:: BerDerp™ ::

I took some time off this past weekend but had some delays getting out of the Bay area. However, early this morning, I grabbed another ZipCar and took off for a mini-two-day vacation. My first stop was about 5 miles North of San Simeon at a very intriguing place called the Hearst Castle, former summer home of the publishing tycoon
William Randolph Hearst.

I originally visited this fascinating location several years ago, and was really looking forward to seeing it again. Maybe the tours are a little rushed (105 minutes), there are 5 total, and some of the house is slightly boring, but overall it’s just an amazing and completely remarkable place that he constructed over the span of 20 something years. Mr. Hearst didn’t exactly play by the rules of modern art collectors when he was amassing many of the objects seen there today. Clearly there were no questions asked when he was receiving Egyptian sarcophagi, friezes from Greece, Italian ceiling panelling from the 12th century, church pews from 16th century England, etc.

Let’s begin:

the Neptune Pool is undoubtedly the most identifiable trademark of the Hearst Castle, and rightfully so. It’s total baller

furthermore, there is an indoor pool as well where the bottom is completely comprised of golden 1″ mosaic inlay.

As I said, Hearst himself was fond of various arts and culture he saw during his travels; here we see 2 images of sarcophagus: the closed one is one of only few known closed top sarcophagus in the world

close up another sarchopagus, but not a closed lid

Italian marble sculpture outside Casa Del Mar

it’s one thing to enjoy a view, but it’s another to completely OWN the entire view,, and at one point when the Hearst family owned over 200,000 acres, that’s exactly what they had.. as far as you could see — they owned it

the interior of the house was so big, that sometimes visiting guests could obviously get a little turned around. No worries, just pick up any of the phones that were available on site — this lit up a switch board that an onsite operator had and they could pinpoint the guests location and send a house staff-person to fetch them.