hearst castle

a big thank you to franchesca for recommending i visit the hearst castle. it was fantastic. i did the "experience tour", one of the five or so tours they offer. unfortunately you're never at a really good spot to get a full photo of the casa grande, the large picture above, and the third small photo are parts of hearst's residence at the ranch. the two towers in the main photo are bell towers. hearst's guests were invited to play the bells during their visit, but only between the hours of 10am & 10pm to avoid bothering the other guests. the third small photo shows the balcony off the bedroom hearst used for some time, before moving into one of the rooms behind one of the bell towers.

also seen here is a shot of the neptune pool, complete with a greek temple he bought & had reconstructed at the ranch. it's actually parts of several temples, with the figures in the pediment being big question marks as to age & origin. there's also a ceiling from the small guest house we walked through. our tour guide mentioned that hearst needed a ranch so large because he collected antique ceilings and wanted people to see them. indeed, the ceilings were quite fascinating throughout the complex. the last photo is of the indoor pool, tiled completely in glass tiles (some containing gold). absolutely amazing. it was beautiful. when we first started the tour, our guide told us that a year from now everything we see may be fuzzy in our minds except for the neptune pool & the indoor pool - those we would remember clearly. i think he may be right.