Paso Robles to Solvang & surrounds (93 – 99)

The drive to Solvang took us only 2 hours and was very straight-forward. Upon arrival at the beautiful Solvang campground, we were told of a few “must see” places and because we had children with us, they suggested we might enjoy seeing where Michael Jackson used to live at the Neverland ranch.

As we still had plenty daylight left and the weather was great, we headed off to find the ranch. There was no sign posting at all and although the trip from the campground to the ranch was only 25 kms, about 15 kms was on quite a narrow bitumen road, causing us to wonder whether or not we were still on the correct route. We drove through a very rural area and straight past what turned out to be the Neverland gate, only stopping once the road narrowed to a point where a single car would fit on the bitumen surface.

We did a U turn and headed back past all the farms, to where we previously saw a large gate with a stone wall on either side. A taxi was parked in the street beside it and that initially was the only sign of life. We hopped out of the car and saw a young Chinese lady very excitedly running about using her taxi driver as her camera man. These indeed were the gates to the Neverland ranch and she had flown all the way from China to see them, but you cannot pass them.

Lots of notes, ribbons and messages had been written on every part of the stone walls, even the trees had carved inscriptions from adoring fans. Despite no-one any longer living there, security was present both inside the gate with a man glancing at us from inside his car, to the many cameras positioned outside the gate located in trees, at ground level and on the fence. The irony about the beautiful gate and stone wall entrance is that, in total it was about 20 metres long. At each side of this structure was a wooden fence with three horizontal lengths of timber you could step over.

After taking quite a few photos we headed back towards Solvang and passed a miniature pony stud farm. We arrived almost at their posted closing time, but the gate was still open so we drove in parked, alone in a large car park. Apart from a couple of people in the distance using very noisy engine-driven blowers to make fallen leaves into piles, we were alone. We felt like we were trespassing on a private farm.

"Feather" a fully grown miniature
pony who had been sold and
was awaiting her new owner

Nearby we noticed a lady leading one of these tiny ponies walking into an enclosed shelter, so we went to find her to ask if it was OK to look about. She confirmed it was fine and explained a little about these ponies. Fully grown the height to their withers is not to exceed 32” or 81cm and being so small, they cannot support a rider. However, they can and do pull carts that can support the weight of an adult. She told us their price had almost halved since the downturn here in the USA and that their most expensive pony now sells for about $4,500.

Solvang is quite a small place and as we were heading back to the campground, drove through the heart of town. It is certainly had the appearance of being a unique township, unlike anything we had seen in the USA. We stopped briefly in town at a visitor’s centre, got some ideas and brochures and planned our day for tomorrow.

Again, the weather Gods were smiling and we drove back into town the next morning in glorious sunshine. Solvang, founded in 1911 as a Danish-American colony on a portion of the sprawling Rancho San Carlos de Jonata, has developed into a well-known tourist attraction. The village has a population of just over 5000 and has been designed to represent a page from a Hans Christian Anderson story, although, for the entire day we were there we didn’t hear anything resembling a Danish accent.

Solvang, meaning “Sunny Field” was founded by a group of Danish educators from the Midwest in search of a site for a Danish-type folk school. They liked what they saw and envisioned the location of the potential town, nestled between the Santa Ynez and San Rafael Mountain Ranges, as an ideal place to launch their school and where settlers could earn a living tilling the rich soil.

Included among the first arrivals were not only farmers, but carpenters and other artisans as well who set about constructing the first buildings, homes, a hotel and the original two-story folk school, Atterdag College built in 1914 on a hill on the north side of town.

Many Danish customs have been adopted and are actively still in use today. That includes the rejsegilde, a celebration at the raising of the highest rafter on a new building. This tradition has now spread throughout the non-Danish population on the Santa Ynez Valley. Daily tours are provided all year round (except winter where tours are offered only on weekends) via Honen “The Hen”, a replica of a Copenhagen street car of the early 1900s. Unfortunately, we missed out on that experience as despite looking, we couldn’t find The Hen.

We decided to rent a pedal car that had room for 4 and the largest seated 6. However, Meryla didn’t want to be seen riding that in public (a teenage thing) so opted out, leaving us the option of hiring a 4-seater. We pedalled about the town laughing and having a great time until Rochelle somehow started to slide forward off her seat (she had a seat belt fitted?) and her feet started dragging underneath the frame.

The brakes worked very well thankfully, so we brushed her off and put her in the front seat so we could all keep an eye on her. The hour’s rental passed very quickly and we worked our way back to the rental place just in time. We wandered about the quaint township and noticed many places had a stork on their roof. Apparently, an old Danish belief is that having a stork on the roof will bring them good luck.

We came across the Red Viking restaurant that offered a smorgåsbord as at it was time for lunch, in we went. And a very nice Scandinavian smorgasbord it was with different types of herring, Swedish meatballs (smaller than our standard size but very nice with their gravy), hot and cold meats and salads.

Every Wednesday afternoon was a designated Market Day and a small section in the centre of town was closed off to allow local farmers and artisans to display and sell their wares. And being near Christmas, there were a lovely couple who looked awfully familiar. 

We purchased a few groceries and a bottle of walnut oil which we look forward to using in a salad. By the time we’d finished lunch, had our photos taken in one of those old-fashioned family photo outfits and purchased our items at the market, it was time to head home and prepare for tomorrow’s drive to Los Angeles.