Best Western Heritage Inn Concord

... being a tourist attraction in itself and not just a safe haven for the Chinese community. The streets run down as far as the eye could see with Chinese paper lanterns scattered everywhere and brightly coloured shops with streamers flowing from the windows, all very jovel.

After a feed and getting a bit of a second wind we decided to attempt one of the smaller hills to pay a trip to Coit Tower which overlooked the bay and with the island of Alcatraz just off in the ...

Left Tehachapi early in the morning bound for Jessie & Nick's house on the outskirts of San Francisco. I drove through one of the agricultural meccas of the US, the center of Cali. It was cool to see the lemon trees all around. I wanted to pull over and pick some ;) I was immediately struck by the amount of smog in the air, then thought it may be some ...

... we have encountered outside of family-owned motels. Wonderful. On the first morning that we awoke in San Francisco, we set out on a very, very long exploratory walk of the city. We followed the street that out hotel was on as it dropped steadily down towards the waterfront at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. From there we followed the piers, past a mixed selection of posh waterfront restaurants and tumble-down warehouses. We eventually came upon Pier 39 where ...

... t flat! The skys were clear, the sea fog was being held at bay, right up until the last picture from the view point at the other side of the bridge, before slowly the cloud started rolling back in. Walking back, by the time we reached midway, looking towards the city side, the South Tower was completely covered by the mist only a couple of rust red stumps could be seen, turn a full 360 degrees and take a look at the North Tower, no mist, no cloud, clear Sky's, a perfect picture ...

... free (had a couple screwdrivers each), they even were walking down the aisles with red/white wine asking if anyone wanted any. I was able to get about 3 hrs sleep on and off and poor Aaron only got about an hour. We had Audio/Video on demand so both watched a few movies, made the trip much more enjoyable. Arrived home via Bart & taxi safe and sound. All is good on the homefront, we are both just very tired... We enjoyed our trip very much. Would we go back to ...

... spent Sunday in Golden Gate Park, it was mothers day so it was pretty busy. We had an hour on a pedal boat on a pretty lake filled with turtles! We had a nice walk through the park and went to the Japanese Tea Gardens. Unfortunately they weren't terribly peaceful as they were jammed full of people, lots of kids making lots of noise but the screaming parents were worse. They were really pretty though. After that we headed to Twin Peaks. We stopped off at a nice beach and watched ...

... David Hiscock for assistance in the London-St. Petersburg segment, to Dr. Roop Gosain for medical preparations, and to HSBC for putting in place financial backup measures. During the journey. Thanks go to Chuck again for putting up with and taking care of me, for writing the blog and taking all the photographs. This enabled me to travel light, to wander freely, both physically and mentally, unencumbered. Thanks to Julien for a blitz Berlin tour; to ...

... in marijuana smoke singing along to Jefferson Airplane cranking out White Rabbit with some flowers in my hair I would have said they were nuts. But there you go. Good fun!! Walked my butt off as well shopping for gadgets and things to take back home to the Falklands. All in all a good week! Next stop - London for a week of stock assessment talks at Imperial College... can't wait :-(

... erfolgreich. Ikea ist nicht nur in Europa beliebt... alles was wir uns ausgesucht hatten war AUSVERKAUFT!!! Am Sonntag hatten wir dann die Möglichkeit uns San Francisco mit einem Bus anzugucken. Einfach UNGLAUBLICH!!! Nochmal vielen Dank an unsere Freunde! Morgen bin ich mit meinem zukünftigen Chef zum Mittagessen verabredet. Gott hab ich Schiss! Aber da muss ich wohl durch...

... It is the old military Arsenal complex from the 1700 & 1800's. It was obviously a run down, working class area that they are in the process of dramatically revitalizing. Our apartment complex was right on the Thames River with a very nice view of the skyline of London. The apartment itself was very spacious and modern and the nicest housing we have been in for 8 weeks. It had all the modern conveniences but I felt lacked the charm of many of the older places we have stayed at ...