In a recent post, I had images of Hurst Castle. A friend of mine in the US mentioned the similarly named location on the California coast near the city of Cambria. Before we moved to the US, Nancy and I had made a trip to California during which we did a tour of the place. Built by William Randolph Hearst, this place is a combination of so many influences. Much of the decoration was accrued during travels around the world. You have elements of ancient buildings, parts of monasteries, designs influenced by other places and random designs that appealed.

From what I can gather, visitors now get fleeced by having the tours broken down into smaller sections, so you have to pay for each one. When we were there, it was more of an overall tour, and we got to see a lot of the collection. This was the days of film photography which means some of the shots didn’t work and I didn’t realise until long afterwards combined with a lot less pictures being taken overall. Film was also daylight balanced so the colours when inside could be quite sketchy. A little processing now tries to improve them but there is only so much you can do and only so much effort that is really justified for a holiday photo.

These images are a brief summary of what we saw during that visit. Some grandiose elements and some looted goods. Not my assessment – our tour guide was quite clear that the methods by which Hearst got hold of these artefacts was not always ethical. I believe a visit now will cost you a bunch. However, if you are already on the coast near Cambria, I would suggest you have already gone far enough to justify making the effort to visit.