Ca'd'Andrean Manarola

Nach der hitzigen und kargen Wuestenlandschaft des Death Valley sind wir heute zurueck ins Baumland des Sequoia National Parks...Hallo Baumbart?!

Im Giant Forest gibt es unzaehlige Riesenbaeume, die wirklich jedes Auto winzig erscheinen lassen. Hier steht auch der groesste Baum der Welt (General Sherman :-)). Er ist zwar nicht der hoechste und auch nicht der breiteste, aber sein Gesamtstammvolumen (1500 m3) ist unuebertroffen.

... bad so we were just happy to be indoors. Due to the weather and the amount of traveling and transfers we decided to save our exploring for the next day. We split a litre of wine (which would later be supplemented with another 1/2 liter) over a game of Monopoly after catching up on emails. Off to bed and hoping to stay dry and see more on our second day in Cinque Terre.

Day 7: Thursday

The view from our hostel room was absolutely breath taking. The church tower with ...

... cloud of mist that travels across the sea into the road. We could really see it when we stopped off and climbed some of the rocks along Big Sur - that was ace.

Paul

We rode the famous Highway 1 today. Beautiful. The Big Sur section is incredible. We are coming to the end of our big drives...I'm really going to miss it.

The part of Fresno we are staying in is eerily quiet...almost like a zombie movie build up...

... rausgesucht und los gehts! Es gibt hier soooo viele tolle Sachen, ganz zu schweigen von den Schuhen...Wenns ginge, würde ich mir einen Vorrat für die nächsten 3 -5 Jahre zusammen kaufen!!! Da kann man schon ein Vermögen loswerden, wenn man es hat!!!

Sewy wollte nach den ersten beiden Geschäften schon unbedingt auf einen Kaffee und einen Käsekuchen gehen (warum nur?) - der perfekte Ort dafür "The Cheesecake Factory". Gesagt - getan ...

... USA style when 'Journey' was on!!

Sun 30th Aug

One night stay in the lively San Jose to rest before we headed for Half Moon Bay and the infamous Sam's Chouwder House. Great veiws and fish dishes helped us for our trip heading south down route 1, which runs parrallel to the Pacific. many a winding road watching the coastline and the surfers before we reached Santa Cruz.

... leaders from history like Hitler, Mussalini, Stalin, and Sadam (suprisingly no President Bush :) ).

We headed to the next trail head. We came to a why in the road with a sign angled sort of to the left. It was tough to tell so we head down the hill to the left. It was supposed to be rugged, but it seemed a bit extreme. We were hiking through grapes and over hoses. We skipped across a creek and had no clue where we were going ...

... Marmots & a Coyote). Kings Canyon is Massive! It takes ages to drive around. We had to fill-up in a 1928 petrol pump; It was really interesting to see how it worked. At the Ranger Office we inquired about the trails and the kids picked up the young Ranger program. We did Meadow trail collecting sugar cones along the way and hoping to see ...

... don't break an ankle. They said the last supper was beautiful but it was a shame that in the 16th century a big hole was cut in it for a doorway which is now plastered over. They had already done the 2 most difficult walks: Monterossa to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia. The older lady told Mom, "You can do it. Just bring lots of water and your inhaler". After lunch we decided to check out the 2 other towns that we had not ...

... leap off or something. She is nervous because she thinks of our trip to British Columbia. I was more nervous for her because her balance is not great and she periodically trips over a stone or weaves along the path. We came across one of those rickety suspension bridges along the way. Mom wouldn't let me take a picture because she wanted to hold on to me crossing the bridge. There were lots of picture opportunities of different local ...

... our destination). However, when we arrived in Sarvana I was told that there was no train to Manarola from there and we would have to go the Spezia and then change to another train to go to Manarola. We checked the board and Spezia was listed as being at track #2. When they announced that the train was arriving "da Spetzia" that didn't sound right to me and I pulled out my handy Italian language guide. Sure enough it was ...