The reason we stayed at San Simeon was mainly to visit Hearst Castle, the famous home of publishing millionaire William Randolph Hearst. It was built between 1919 and 1947, on the top of a hill overlooking the pacific. No expense was spared, and as Hearst was obsessed by European art and architecture, the result was a bit like a Footballer's house on steroids! The guide kept saying 'this piece is 600 years old, and it's from Europe', but it's bloody ugly, and it ...

We drove south from Monterey to San Simeon along US HWY 1, grooving to smooth jazz, courtesy of the George Benson CD we'd just bought. We had to make a huge detour inland, because the coast road was blocked due to a landslide, but before we turned inland we spotted whales off the coast of Big Sur! We followed the detour up into the mountains, and then through the middle of a huge US Army base. We were slack-jawed at the number of armoured trucks painted in 'deser...