In the early 20th century, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst decided to build a castle in the United States that could rival the old castles in Europe.
Hearst Castle Front Thus, over a period of more than 30 years, 'Hearst Castle' was created, for which he imported original furniture from Europe to decorate his home. Dining Room Today, Hearst Castle is a museum that can be visited with various tours. Initially, we arrived in a large hall where we could book our tour with a fixed departure time for the bus that took us up the hill to the castle. A tour with 15-30 people started every 10 minutes, so it was crowded. View of Hearst Castle from the garden Visitors could only enter the castle with a tour, where people pushed through the rooms and you could already see the next tour.Afterwards, you could walk alone through the garden and explore the castle grounds before taking the shuttle bus back to the parking lot. Private swimming pool at Hearst Castle After these crowds, we continued our quieter drive on Highway No 1 and arrived at a sandy beach where we could observe elephant seals. As they gather on the beach to molt, we were able to see these huge animals easily. Elephant seals The seals stay on the beach for about a month and do not eat during this time (which was not necessarily visible). We continued our drive to a small park with beautiful views: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.There we took a short hike and enjoyed the beautiful view of the bay. Our next hotel was in Monterey, where we saw seals in the harbor basin during a city tour.
Visiting the aquarium was particularly impressive, as it houses a variety of marine animals.
We really liked the jellyfish exhibition, where we could see these creatures floating through the water in atmospheric lighting.
In the deep-sea tank, we saw a sunfish. Later we learned that this is something very special, as these fish are not found in many aquariums. Sunfish are the heaviest bony fish and can weigh up to 2.3 tons.
Sunfish
We also had a lot of fun watching the sea otters, who had to 'work' to get their food by opening swimming balls.
After our visit to the aquarium, we continued to San Francisco, from where we would fly back to Germany the next day.
