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Entry: 0
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Paris.... Paris! :: Sunday May 6th, 2007
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Well off to a good start! the Air Europe flight to Paris was delayed by 30 minutes, so we never made our connecting flight to San Francisco. Air France took care of things and now we will attempt to get to San Francisco for a second time on the same flight tomorrow morning (Monday 7th), mierda as Lucia would say, I though.... bol*****s.
OK, as it happens we have spent a great evening in Paris. 3 years ago we found this excellent couscous restaurant just off the rue Lafayette, took a train into the centre with the intentions of having dinner there, we walked around Notre Dame, great carnival atmosphere in the streets, elections? then got the metro to Lafayette metro station... fatigue must have been setting in as this obviously this was not the right station but fate took it's course again and we found 'Bouillon Chartier', 7 rue du Fanbourg Montmartre. This originally was as what the French called 'La Soupe Poulaire', dating to 1896. Apparently... practically the only thing that has changed since then are the staff and the paint on the walls, by the looks of it the paint was last re-done in 1900! but the place was dripping in character and atmosphere, well worth a visit if anyone is going to Paris, even if only for the atmosphere.
6 Escargot starter costs 6.5 euros... in the centre of Paris!
...
Hola, al final se retraso el vuelo a Paris y perdimos el de San Francisco, pero descubrimos nuevos lugares de Paris que nunca terminas de conocerlo, que preciosidad de ciudad!!
Bueno espero que hoy si salgamos para USA....
Besitos,
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Enry made on: May 6, 2007 - 9.24 pm UTC
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Entry: -1
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San Francisco :: Wednesday May 8, 2007
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Well we have arrived at last, had a good flight, really good views over Greenland, Canada and the rockies on the way over.
Great first couple of days in San Francisco, weather has been unusually hot for this time of the year, in the 90's F (33 C), but I'm not complaining although the fog has just moved in this evening, or as the local TV station reported it.... San Francisco's air conditioning was turned on this evening!
We have managed to do a lot , seeing around China town, Fisherman's Wharf, sea lions on Pier 39, nice old boats and workshops on Piers 44 & 45, boat trip out under the Golden Gate bridge and round Alcatraz, various cable car rides along with "a lot of" walking, Lucia even got to Bloomingdale's, which you could spend a couple of days in alone! BTW, the cable car system is amazing when you think about it, all the cable cars on the two lines up and down hills, round streets etc. are all pulled from one cable that runs under the road, this is driven by one drive station just up from Fisherman's wharf.
We have had a lot of luck with food so far, a great Italian beside Union Square last night, a really nice lunch in the 'Pier Market' on 'Pier 39' "their web site doesn't do them credit but the Dungeness crab was great and took 45 minutes to eat" and a terrific Thai just across the road from the hotel this evening.
Everyone in San Francisco is very friendly and extremely helpful, hope this keeps up! if anyone is coming over here 'Sharon', then talk to American tourists, they can keep you right and really help by telling you about places to see that you may not otherwise know about.
Met a bloke today who runs a restaurant where we went for a coffee on arrival at Fisherman's Wharf, he has just married a girl from Newtownards and his friend married her friend from... Bangor!
We pick up the car tomorrow and will head out to Muir woods, this is a park a few miles the other side of the Golden gate bridge which has the only redwoods outside of Oregon from what we have been told. Have decided "after talking to people today" to head down to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles by the coast road. This means we will not now head out to Yosemite as planned, we have been told the coast trip is really worth the longer drive and is probably the better of the two options, which is probably good as it saves us from having to drive east for 4 hours and then south.
I will try and add some photos at the next stop we have internet permitting.
Oh yes, and Lucia has learnt some more English... Have a nice day!.
See some more images: 'Galleries'
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Enry made on: May 9, 2007 - 2.53 am UTC
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Entry: -2
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Hasta luego San Francisco :: Wednesday May 9, 2007
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Picked up the rental then headed out across the Golden Gate bridge after making a drive around the twin peaks area of San Francisco. First stop after crossing the bridge was to call into Sausalito for a late breakfast, this is a small town the other side of San Francisco bay and it was such a nice morning that we sat in the cafe garden for an hour just looking out over the bay.
Upward and forward to Muir Woods, suprised to find it is only 15 minutes from Sausalito, yet there is no sign of the 300 ft high "and in some cases 20 ft in dia" redwoods until you actually reach the park entrance! Not much else to see here except redwoods, they have an strange growing habit of forming 'family circles' which look unusual and are quite impressive "in brief, a redwood grows and dies from the top of the roots up, but the roots are still alive, in frustration at the main trees growing incapabilities they sprout new trees, as roots spread out from a tree... a circle of new trees are formed with the dead one in the middle".
So back over the Golden Gate bridge and a quick detour down to China beach to try and get a couple of good photos of the bridge, fog cuts off the top of the bridge suspension supports but it still looks impressive. Start the drive down south, we intended to go down to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara on 1 but ended up on the 101 because of a misunderstanding with the GPS, but again a good turn from a mistake and on turning off the 101 to get down to see Hearst castle on 1 we pulled off at a small town called Cambria to find a motel, the town is surreal as it just looked like a film set, I actually started to think that someone was just trying to pull my leg but is is real! Anyway, couldn't find the motel so I stopped a Highway Patrol officer at a gas station, the guy was great and drove us to the motel... friendly, humorous and helpful. Everyone in town we have met have been very friendly and helpful, definitely worth a stop over if in the area.
Off to Santa Barbara and LA this morning after driving up to see Hearst castle, LA is about 220 miles away now so I guess we should have a comfortable drive with time to look around on the way down.
Drive: San Francisco > Sausalito > Muir Woods > San Francisco >Palo Alto > Cuppertino > Cambria
See some more images: 'Galleries'
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Enry made on: May 10, 2007 - 3.17 pm UTC
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Entry: -3
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Cambria to LA :: Thursday May 10, 2007
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After breakfast we spent an hour walking around Cambria, then headed up highway 1 to "William Randolph" Hearst Castle and took the Experience tour, it was that.... this should not be missed if anyone visits this area, the story of Hearst is worth the trip without seeing round Hearst property, the building and some of the land was gifted to the US Parks in "I think" 1957 and remains as it was when WRH had it, furniture and all as it was in the days when he had the parties with Clarke Gable, Chaplin, Hughes and all the other famous and influential of the day.
We decided to drive north up 1 for a bit, see the seals and some of the coast then turned round and headed for H 101 to Los Angeles. There are areas of H 1 that feel and look like Cadiz and even similar to a drive around the coast of Ireland on a sunny day, if you can find one there that is. The obvious things that give it away are the abundance of Eagles and every 3rd vehicle being a Dodge Ram with double wheels and flared arches, the rest are 50/40/10 other 4x4's, cars & trucks. Arrived North LA at around 19.45, this is a couple of kilometres from Beverly Hills and Hollywood so is a good stop for getting to those areas first thing in the morning.
Drive: Cambria > Hearst Castle > Santa Barbara > Los Angeles (Thousand Oaks)
I have added a couple of images to the posts now, we have taken loads so I quickly put a few of these into galleries, I have also updated the previous posts with a little more information and added a Gallery link to the posts.
See some more images: 'Galleries'
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Enry made on: May 11, 2007 - 6.27 am UTC
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