Hotel Casanas Valverde

... the first day and then switched to the healthier bran flakes and toast, all the time shaking her head and laughing at me as I literally stuffed my face with waffle after waffle. After breakfast we helped ourselves to some fruit and muffins to take out with us and we set off into sunny San Francisco.

Well it was kind of sunny, you see no one told us that San Francisco is quite cool at this time of year. Now don't get me wrong it is ...

... adventures. We arrived via the coastal route (Hwy 1, runs along the whole west coast and offers spectactular views the whole way) and headed straight for the Golden Gate Bridge. Cool!!! We stopped and viewed it from each end and Bek got the pleasure of driving over it, wooo! She never got to do that when she was a kid (drive over it that is).

Our first night was spent in Marin Headlands National Park which is directly next to the ...

... we got back to the hotel my legs were screaming and I could not walk one step further. We still had to have dinner (as we had depleted earlier nourishment with too much walking). We headed across the street to Lori's Dinner, a 50's style dinner where the music in the jukebox was much better then the food. I had probably the worst French Toast that I have even eaten, but was too tired to care. Scratch Lori's Dinner of our list of restaurants to revisit.

... bay using the famous Golden gate Bridge - it was so high,very windy, noisy and the cycle lane was on the outside edge of this huge structure and the barrier did not seem quite high enough. The sea was a very very long way below and the large container ship that passed under as we went over was very small. Check out the next blog for these and other pictures of the second half of our time in SF, and then the start of our road trip. Tata for now...

... to spend time and get away to was Angel Island. Billed as the Ellis Island of the West, Angel Island was run almost Concentration Camp style as it processed the predominantly Chinese immigrants trying to enter the US during the early - mid 1900s. The island covers a total of 740 acres and is a a wonderful place to hike and explore. One trail can take you up to the top of the 788 feet peak where you can get a great view of the entire Bay area.

12 a.m. and my bed is still strewn with winter clothes, summer clothes, beach clothes, hiking equipment and miscellany. This does not bode well with my 3:50 a.m. wake up call and 5 a.m. departure to San Francisco. Thankfully Claudiu gave me a lift to the airport and we made it with time to spare and slight bit of fanfare. The evening before the right light went out in my car and this morning the SRS light went on! It doesn't usually give me much trouble ...

... Zeiten meines Sabbaticals verbracht und noch viele unbekannte Seiten an meiner Lieblingsstadt entdeckt z.B. ihre kulinarischen Genuesse (San Franciscans sind die groessten Feinschmecker Amerikas) oder die herrlichen Aussichten im Marin County ueber die gesamte Bay. Jetzt bleibt mir nur noch, mich von ganzem Herzen auf mein allerallerletztes Ziel zu freuen: New York! Geniesst euren Sommer!

... each other battling for the best place to snooze and soak up some rays. The early morning fog had burnt off by then but it was still lurking out in the Bay. I had double layered today with a t shirt and jumper, and as we moved about the jumper came on and off. We continued along the pier and then cut inland to find the Powell-Mason cable car, on the way we passed a Walgreens and bought some touristy bits and supplies ...

We spent two great days in this wonderful city. The first day we mainly looked at all the sights - china town, coit tower with a great view, lombard street, golden gate bridge, fisherman's warf, boo-man, cable car museum. On sunday we went to alcatraz, drove with the cable car, went shopping on market street, ... and made some pictures. Alcatraz was really interesting and well made with an audio tour. But we discovered it is quite cold in California!!

... to know that I am currently doing my impression of Rudolph - I did put cream on yesterday but obviously not enough and now have a nice red nose and sunglass marks on my cheeks which foundation just refuses to cover up!! San Francisco really is a beautiful city and even though there is stuff that I wanna see but haven't I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Las Vegas. I think that ...