View of Mount Fuji from Hakone on a clear day
View of Mount Fuji from Hakone today
Oh well, maybe next time.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Kyoto, Hiroshima and back to Tokyo.
Thanks to Mikko who's keeping up his side of the deal posting comments. Where are the rest of you? Still haven't heard from either sets of parents! Unbelievable. Please keep in touch, it's nice to hear from you all.
We really enjoyed the rest of our time in Kyoto. As you see we visited temples - several of them, one of which really had the bling factor. When we come home i think i'd like to paint our flat in gold. Not sure what our management company would have to say about that. But it does look good doesn't it? They were going to paint another temple on the other side of the city silver, but they never quite got around to it. It's a bit cheeky calling it the silver pavillion when it's blatently brown. Glad we found that out before we decided to visit. We visited some lovely japanese water gardens too.
The weather has been much less humid recently so it's made exploring much easier. We've also experienced rain equivalent to UK standards so we felt right at home when we visited Hiroshima. We stayed there for 2 nights, giving us one full day to look around. Luckily the rain didn't start until lunch time so we stayed dry for the morning at least.
I compare visiting Hiroshima to visiting Ground Zero. It's somewhere you have to go but it makes you feel so sad and horrified when you do. The museum is fabulous. It gives the history building up to the atom bombing of the city in detail, which does not prepare you in any way for the eye witness accounts, scale models showing the utter destruction of the city and artifacts on display on the next floor. It's absolutely harrowing, I couldn't bring myself to read or look at some of it. Then we went on to see the A-Bomb dome itself which I always imagined was a massive crater in the ground. The bomb exploded about 600metres above ground and almost underneath that was the building you see remarkably still standing with the metal dome roof structure (hence it's called the A-bomb dome now). This has been preserved exactly as it was left that day. The peace park and Hall of remembrance were also very sobering experiences. The hall has the names of the 140,000 people who died that year as a direct result of the bombing.
On to much more cheerful things, we discovered a Hiroshima delicacy called Okonomi-yaki. This is just yummy. It has a pancake bottom, then it's piled high with shredded cabbage and beansprouts and other veggies, then noodles, then bacon and an omlette-type egg on top, all cooked on a hot plate and expertly flipped over right there in front of you. Looks like a big omlette and tastes amazing. The best thing is they push it over to the hot plate in front of you so that it keeps warm enough for silly westerners who aren't so clever with the chopsticks to eat.
Today we travelled back to Tokyo and are staying in Shinjuku, a bussling area which should be a good place for our last few nights in Japan. Tomorrow if the weather holds up we are going to have a trip out to more rural Japan. We're going to Hakone, which is close to Mount Fuji and has some lakes, a cable car into the hills and hot springs. Looking forward to this as we've really only seen the urban side of Japan so far.
We've both said we'll be sad to leave Japan. Now that we've started to get familiar with it, we could spend a lot more time here but New Zealand awaits. We fly out on friday. Looking forward to getting our little camper van and doing some more touring.
We really enjoyed the rest of our time in Kyoto. As you see we visited temples - several of them, one of which really had the bling factor. When we come home i think i'd like to paint our flat in gold. Not sure what our management company would have to say about that. But it does look good doesn't it? They were going to paint another temple on the other side of the city silver, but they never quite got around to it. It's a bit cheeky calling it the silver pavillion when it's blatently brown. Glad we found that out before we decided to visit. We visited some lovely japanese water gardens too.
The weather has been much less humid recently so it's made exploring much easier. We've also experienced rain equivalent to UK standards so we felt right at home when we visited Hiroshima. We stayed there for 2 nights, giving us one full day to look around. Luckily the rain didn't start until lunch time so we stayed dry for the morning at least.
I compare visiting Hiroshima to visiting Ground Zero. It's somewhere you have to go but it makes you feel so sad and horrified when you do. The museum is fabulous. It gives the history building up to the atom bombing of the city in detail, which does not prepare you in any way for the eye witness accounts, scale models showing the utter destruction of the city and artifacts on display on the next floor. It's absolutely harrowing, I couldn't bring myself to read or look at some of it. Then we went on to see the A-Bomb dome itself which I always imagined was a massive crater in the ground. The bomb exploded about 600metres above ground and almost underneath that was the building you see remarkably still standing with the metal dome roof structure (hence it's called the A-bomb dome now). This has been preserved exactly as it was left that day. The peace park and Hall of remembrance were also very sobering experiences. The hall has the names of the 140,000 people who died that year as a direct result of the bombing.
On to much more cheerful things, we discovered a Hiroshima delicacy called Okonomi-yaki. This is just yummy. It has a pancake bottom, then it's piled high with shredded cabbage and beansprouts and other veggies, then noodles, then bacon and an omlette-type egg on top, all cooked on a hot plate and expertly flipped over right there in front of you. Looks like a big omlette and tastes amazing. The best thing is they push it over to the hot plate in front of you so that it keeps warm enough for silly westerners who aren't so clever with the chopsticks to eat.
Today we travelled back to Tokyo and are staying in Shinjuku, a bussling area which should be a good place for our last few nights in Japan. Tomorrow if the weather holds up we are going to have a trip out to more rural Japan. We're going to Hakone, which is close to Mount Fuji and has some lakes, a cable car into the hills and hot springs. Looking forward to this as we've really only seen the urban side of Japan so far.
We've both said we'll be sad to leave Japan. Now that we've started to get familiar with it, we could spend a lot more time here but New Zealand awaits. We fly out on friday. Looking forward to getting our little camper van and doing some more touring.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Photos from Kyoto online
Off to Hiroshima tomorrow so time to upload the pictures from Kyoto. Click on the picture for the rest
Friday, 24 September 2010
Kyoto and around the Kansai area.
Insect bites: 7:5 to Kim and Colin respectively (despite the guide book insisting you won't have any problems here).
Deer attacks: 1 (I should clarify the deer attacked me, not the other way around).
The last day in Tokyo we did go to see some fat men in nappies and it was really good fun. Hugely entertaining - I don't know why it hasn't taken off in the UK. I keep wanting to challenge Colin whenever we need to solve a dispute as to who's right (happens frequently), but I fear he's a bit stronger than me and I've seen what happens to some of the weedy fighters!
The language barrier has become a bigger problem but really only in terms of eating out. Most places near where we stayed in Tokyo had translated menus which made life easy. We've found in Kyoto it's not quite the same. You can walk around the downtown area and see thousands of restaurants - many of which have the headings eg. starters, fish, meats, desserts written in english but what's written under these headings is written in kanji. It's a bit frustrating but it adds to the fun of finding a place to eat.
That said, Kyoto is a really cool city. We've been out and about temple hopping but as there's more still to do we haven't posted the Kyoto photos yet. They'll be coming your way in a couple of days. We're staying in an apart-hotel here so we have a mini kitchen which is great for making toast and coffee in a morning to save some yen. The japanese equivalent of dairylea cheese slices are interesting (even when they're not frozen you have to slice them-frozen they're disgusting) but all in all we're not wasting away.
We've used Kyoto as a base to explore a few areas. We took a train to Osaka which is where the japanese go to party apparently. It rained that day so we went to the aquarium and didn't stay long enough to see the crazy side of things. Saw some penguins (one of my must see's on our trip, as well as bears-still none!) so that made me happy. The aquarium there is supposedly one of the best in the world and, in spite of our limited aquarium knowledge we were impressed! Also went to Osaka castle in the afternoon and had a wander around town.
Today we took another train to Nara, which, like Kyoto, is full of temples and shrines, one of which contains a 16m high great buddha (and thats when he's sitting down) in the largest wooden building in the world. We did a walking tour around Nara which led us to most of the big tourist sights, as well as ensuring we got stampeded by herds of deer. I know it doesn't look much on the photos but those deer were really going for me. Because i was not quick enough feeding one of them it decided it would have a mouthful of me instead. Trust me there were nearly teeth marks in my belly. Can't imagine why it thought that would be tasty!!
After several nights of eating japanese food and struggling to find things we'd like we copped out tonight and found an irish bar in the guide book, which was great for a night off. We ate irish stew and chicken pie and mash and it was so good. Some of the japanese food we've had has been delicious but i drew a line at the pickled mini fish with heads still on which you were supposed to eat whole. We were given this one evening as a starter.
Hopefully tonight we haven't let any bitey insects in to our room, so the bite tally shouldn't increase. Last night we had left the air conditioning off as it had been cooler. Unfortunately it got warm overnight and by morning we had kicked off the duvet and there was a very fat and very happy mosquito sleeping off a good night's work. Air con's staying on tonight!!!
Deer attacks: 1 (I should clarify the deer attacked me, not the other way around).
The last day in Tokyo we did go to see some fat men in nappies and it was really good fun. Hugely entertaining - I don't know why it hasn't taken off in the UK. I keep wanting to challenge Colin whenever we need to solve a dispute as to who's right (happens frequently), but I fear he's a bit stronger than me and I've seen what happens to some of the weedy fighters!
The language barrier has become a bigger problem but really only in terms of eating out. Most places near where we stayed in Tokyo had translated menus which made life easy. We've found in Kyoto it's not quite the same. You can walk around the downtown area and see thousands of restaurants - many of which have the headings eg. starters, fish, meats, desserts written in english but what's written under these headings is written in kanji. It's a bit frustrating but it adds to the fun of finding a place to eat.
That said, Kyoto is a really cool city. We've been out and about temple hopping but as there's more still to do we haven't posted the Kyoto photos yet. They'll be coming your way in a couple of days. We're staying in an apart-hotel here so we have a mini kitchen which is great for making toast and coffee in a morning to save some yen. The japanese equivalent of dairylea cheese slices are interesting (even when they're not frozen you have to slice them-frozen they're disgusting) but all in all we're not wasting away.
We've used Kyoto as a base to explore a few areas. We took a train to Osaka which is where the japanese go to party apparently. It rained that day so we went to the aquarium and didn't stay long enough to see the crazy side of things. Saw some penguins (one of my must see's on our trip, as well as bears-still none!) so that made me happy. The aquarium there is supposedly one of the best in the world and, in spite of our limited aquarium knowledge we were impressed! Also went to Osaka castle in the afternoon and had a wander around town.
Today we took another train to Nara, which, like Kyoto, is full of temples and shrines, one of which contains a 16m high great buddha (and thats when he's sitting down) in the largest wooden building in the world. We did a walking tour around Nara which led us to most of the big tourist sights, as well as ensuring we got stampeded by herds of deer. I know it doesn't look much on the photos but those deer were really going for me. Because i was not quick enough feeding one of them it decided it would have a mouthful of me instead. Trust me there were nearly teeth marks in my belly. Can't imagine why it thought that would be tasty!!
After several nights of eating japanese food and struggling to find things we'd like we copped out tonight and found an irish bar in the guide book, which was great for a night off. We ate irish stew and chicken pie and mash and it was so good. Some of the japanese food we've had has been delicious but i drew a line at the pickled mini fish with heads still on which you were supposed to eat whole. We were given this one evening as a starter.
Hopefully tonight we haven't let any bitey insects in to our room, so the bite tally shouldn't increase. Last night we had left the air conditioning off as it had been cooler. Unfortunately it got warm overnight and by morning we had kicked off the duvet and there was a very fat and very happy mosquito sleeping off a good night's work. Air con's staying on tonight!!!
Photo album from Osaka uploaded
It rained quite a bit when we were in Osaka so most of the pictures are from the spectacular aquarium. Click on the fish for the rest.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Monday, 20 September 2010
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Tokyo
Loving Japan but as expected things are a bit more tricky here because of the language barrier. Even signing in to the blog here, google thought i'd be able to read kanji script. 2 days really isn't enough to become fluent. However it's not as difficult as we anticipated, partly because many signs are translated and partly because many people speak enough english to help us. We've also mastered the metro ticket system and felt quite smug when a group of foreigners held up the ticket machine queue next to ours and we sailed through without even changing to the english setting!
So we flew into tokyo 2 nights ago and, as we'd not slept on the plane over we passed out and woke up nicely refreshed at 0500hrs the next morning. We went to the gym - still trying desperately to work off those many american burgers. Then we headed out for a day in the city. That's where the refreshed feeling ended. It was not as hot as we've become used to but much more humid. All the japanese were walking around in jumpers and we were sweating like we'd been in a sauna for an hour!! This made me very unhappy and I may have been a bit grumpy for a while. We (begrudgingly- for me) went around the Imperial Palace where the royal family still live. So we weren't allowed in the nice air-conditioned palace, just around the gardens. Apologies for any very sweaty Kim photos which Colin is bound to post in the next few days.
Afterwards i indulged Colin's need for geeky stuff by going to the very techy district of Akihabara where you can buy every cable known to man. We decided it's like Tottenham Court Road on acid! Then we went for beer which was nice.
Today we went to Ginza for a spot of window shopping (Tokyo's answer to Bond St.) and then on to Roppongi (potential to be Soho, i think) where we went up a tall tower. Then we went for beer which was nice.
Not quite sure of the plan for the next few days. We could go to a shrine which has the powers to to aid fertility, child birth and prevent flooding. We thought this an odd combination! We haven't done any shrines yet but there is time for that in Kyoto. So we might just go see some really fat men wearing just belts throw each other around for our amusement.
So we flew into tokyo 2 nights ago and, as we'd not slept on the plane over we passed out and woke up nicely refreshed at 0500hrs the next morning. We went to the gym - still trying desperately to work off those many american burgers. Then we headed out for a day in the city. That's where the refreshed feeling ended. It was not as hot as we've become used to but much more humid. All the japanese were walking around in jumpers and we were sweating like we'd been in a sauna for an hour!! This made me very unhappy and I may have been a bit grumpy for a while. We (begrudgingly- for me) went around the Imperial Palace where the royal family still live. So we weren't allowed in the nice air-conditioned palace, just around the gardens. Apologies for any very sweaty Kim photos which Colin is bound to post in the next few days.
Afterwards i indulged Colin's need for geeky stuff by going to the very techy district of Akihabara where you can buy every cable known to man. We decided it's like Tottenham Court Road on acid! Then we went for beer which was nice.
Today we went to Ginza for a spot of window shopping (Tokyo's answer to Bond St.) and then on to Roppongi (potential to be Soho, i think) where we went up a tall tower. Then we went for beer which was nice.
Not quite sure of the plan for the next few days. We could go to a shrine which has the powers to to aid fertility, child birth and prevent flooding. We thought this an odd combination! We haven't done any shrines yet but there is time for that in Kyoto. So we might just go see some really fat men wearing just belts throw each other around for our amusement.
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Las Vegas back to L.A.
Miles driven in USA: 2368
Bear sightings: still none - not likely to happen now!
So we spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. Wasn't totally sure I'd like this place but I was told that no matter what preconceptions i had i would be impressed by the scale of it - and i was. Colin had been before so knew what to expect. As you can see from the photos everything really is neon, over the top and horrendously tacky. But also quite fun too. It is, however, very difficult to do Vegas on a budget. We spent the first two days wandering around checking out the different hotels/casinos. It was really hot again so walking through one hotel to the next and avoiding the outdoors as much as possible was definitely the way forward.
The first night there we decided to see Cirque du Soleil at our hotel which was so good. Very impressive acrobatics. On our last day we took a flight out to the Grand Canyon. Again, hugely impressive. Not as beautiful as parts of Yosemite but we were both gobsmacked by the landscape. The plane ride was interesting too. It was a very small plane and a very bumpy ride. There were some stomach lurching moments and a few screams from passengers but the pilot had it all under control.
We actually spent hardly any time gambling as a) we didn't want to throw our money away but mostly b) we didn't have a clue what we were doing with most of the games. A few dollars were gobbled by the slot machines but that was all.
One evening we went to the Stratosphere tower at one end of the strip which has amazing views from the lookout tower. We also took a ride which involves you being strapped into a seat and shooting even further up the outside of the tower and then plunging straight back down. Another stomach lurching experience! But really good fun. Last night we wandered down to the Bellagio hotel to see the massive fountains. They do it all set to music so it's quite a show.
Today we travelled back to smog city (L.A.). Dropped off the car which has done more miles in 3 weeks than we normally do in our car in London every year. Then we spent a very lazy afternoon relaxing in our hotel room and trying desperately to pack everything back into 2 bags. Colin may need to sit on mine for me to zip it up but it will happen.
Tomorrow we fly to Tokyo where we'll spend the next 4 days after our 18 hour flight. Looking forward to that so much. Better get on with memorizing some japanese phrases.
Sianara (or something like that!)
Bear sightings: still none - not likely to happen now!
So we spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. Wasn't totally sure I'd like this place but I was told that no matter what preconceptions i had i would be impressed by the scale of it - and i was. Colin had been before so knew what to expect. As you can see from the photos everything really is neon, over the top and horrendously tacky. But also quite fun too. It is, however, very difficult to do Vegas on a budget. We spent the first two days wandering around checking out the different hotels/casinos. It was really hot again so walking through one hotel to the next and avoiding the outdoors as much as possible was definitely the way forward.
The first night there we decided to see Cirque du Soleil at our hotel which was so good. Very impressive acrobatics. On our last day we took a flight out to the Grand Canyon. Again, hugely impressive. Not as beautiful as parts of Yosemite but we were both gobsmacked by the landscape. The plane ride was interesting too. It was a very small plane and a very bumpy ride. There were some stomach lurching moments and a few screams from passengers but the pilot had it all under control.
We actually spent hardly any time gambling as a) we didn't want to throw our money away but mostly b) we didn't have a clue what we were doing with most of the games. A few dollars were gobbled by the slot machines but that was all.
One evening we went to the Stratosphere tower at one end of the strip which has amazing views from the lookout tower. We also took a ride which involves you being strapped into a seat and shooting even further up the outside of the tower and then plunging straight back down. Another stomach lurching experience! But really good fun. Last night we wandered down to the Bellagio hotel to see the massive fountains. They do it all set to music so it's quite a show.
Today we travelled back to smog city (L.A.). Dropped off the car which has done more miles in 3 weeks than we normally do in our car in London every year. Then we spent a very lazy afternoon relaxing in our hotel room and trying desperately to pack everything back into 2 bags. Colin may need to sit on mine for me to zip it up but it will happen.
Tomorrow we fly to Tokyo where we'll spend the next 4 days after our 18 hour flight. Looking forward to that so much. Better get on with memorizing some japanese phrases.
Sianara (or something like that!)
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Yosemite to Sequoia.
Miles driven: 2050 ish.
Weather: Still gorgeous.
Electronic gadgets not working: 3 (most worrying is the sat nav).
Bear sightings: zero.
Disappointment level because of this: high!!
It's been a crazy few days so lots to tell y'all! Colin keeps telling me off for not blogging regularly enough. Apparently i am not doing my job properly. Apologies. Other than that we are getting along just peachy considering i have to put up with him 24/7 and vice versa.
As you will have seen from the photos it would not be possible to not like Yosemite national park. It was so amazing and really great to chill out for a few days. The horses were a good idea. Colin's mule, Dennis, was a spritely young thing so no worries about it being lazy. It kept nudging my mule (Rio) up the bottom to keep him going. He was a bit past it we think. Very sweet natured but incredibly slow. For a group of mostly beginners, we did quite a challenging trail to Mirror Lake (which was completely dry at this time of year) and also we couldn't go all the way around due to a recent rock fall which was still too unstable to pass. Certainly for the best as if more rocks had started falling i don't think Rio would have noticed/cared to get a wriggle on a bit faster. He did alarm me at one point by walking straight for the edge of the path where it dropped steeply away. I thought he perhaps had decided to end it all right then. He thought long and hard about it, ignoring my pulling on his reigns and, when he felt like it (and only then) he carried on following Dennis, who was already halfway up the next hill. We had thought it would be a nice way to get around but rest our legs but it seems that was not the case. Don't know how but my legs got really cramped up so trying to get off the poor animal at the end was so painful. If you've already seen the photo I'm usually so much more dignified!!
The following day we did another hike up to the Vernal and Nevada Falls (2 of the few falls which still flow at this time of year). It was another 7 mile trek but much more difficult. We definitely walked off the burgers that day. So the next day we decided to have a driving day. Went much further into the park to Tuolomne Meadows. Don't know quite how but we ended up doing more walking. We thought it might be fun to walk around, rather than up Lembert Dome and on to Dog Lake which was beautiful. But at 8500ft above sea level and after the previous day's hike walking up a flight of stairs is difficult. This was not a walk in the park at all and at some point on the way back past the dome Colin suggested we had gone this far and climbed so high already that Lembert Dome didn't look so tough. Why did i agree? It can only be described as a monolith of rock which wasn't too bad climbing up until you looked down. At which point i had a moment (some might call it a breakdown) where i sat down, refused to go any further (it was only about 10m to the top) and promptly burst into tears as i could not see how i was possibly able to get down. Colin was sweet. He gave me a cuddle then told me there was a huge storm on it's way and as if by magic we were back at the bottom! The storm never materialised - strange!?! It ended up being another 5 mile strenuous walk.
Our final half day in Yosemite we drove to another large grove of trees (we like trees) where we did another few miles of wvalking, seeing some of the biggest Sequoia (giant redwood) trees in the park.
Then we drove on to Sequoia National park for a look at (yes, you've got it) more big trees. Of course all of this time we've been hoping to see a bear, from a distance naturally. Sadly this was not to be, although we did nearly walk straight into the deer which you can see in the photo with the massive antlers. We were both sad to be leaving the parks. We could easily have spend several weeks exploring them, but we had to move on to the bright lights of Las Vegas which i'm too tired to tell you about tonight. That story we'll save for later.
Weather: Still gorgeous.
Electronic gadgets not working: 3 (most worrying is the sat nav).
Bear sightings: zero.
Disappointment level because of this: high!!
It's been a crazy few days so lots to tell y'all! Colin keeps telling me off for not blogging regularly enough. Apparently i am not doing my job properly. Apologies. Other than that we are getting along just peachy considering i have to put up with him 24/7 and vice versa.
As you will have seen from the photos it would not be possible to not like Yosemite national park. It was so amazing and really great to chill out for a few days. The horses were a good idea. Colin's mule, Dennis, was a spritely young thing so no worries about it being lazy. It kept nudging my mule (Rio) up the bottom to keep him going. He was a bit past it we think. Very sweet natured but incredibly slow. For a group of mostly beginners, we did quite a challenging trail to Mirror Lake (which was completely dry at this time of year) and also we couldn't go all the way around due to a recent rock fall which was still too unstable to pass. Certainly for the best as if more rocks had started falling i don't think Rio would have noticed/cared to get a wriggle on a bit faster. He did alarm me at one point by walking straight for the edge of the path where it dropped steeply away. I thought he perhaps had decided to end it all right then. He thought long and hard about it, ignoring my pulling on his reigns and, when he felt like it (and only then) he carried on following Dennis, who was already halfway up the next hill. We had thought it would be a nice way to get around but rest our legs but it seems that was not the case. Don't know how but my legs got really cramped up so trying to get off the poor animal at the end was so painful. If you've already seen the photo I'm usually so much more dignified!!
The following day we did another hike up to the Vernal and Nevada Falls (2 of the few falls which still flow at this time of year). It was another 7 mile trek but much more difficult. We definitely walked off the burgers that day. So the next day we decided to have a driving day. Went much further into the park to Tuolomne Meadows. Don't know quite how but we ended up doing more walking. We thought it might be fun to walk around, rather than up Lembert Dome and on to Dog Lake which was beautiful. But at 8500ft above sea level and after the previous day's hike walking up a flight of stairs is difficult. This was not a walk in the park at all and at some point on the way back past the dome Colin suggested we had gone this far and climbed so high already that Lembert Dome didn't look so tough. Why did i agree? It can only be described as a monolith of rock which wasn't too bad climbing up until you looked down. At which point i had a moment (some might call it a breakdown) where i sat down, refused to go any further (it was only about 10m to the top) and promptly burst into tears as i could not see how i was possibly able to get down. Colin was sweet. He gave me a cuddle then told me there was a huge storm on it's way and as if by magic we were back at the bottom! The storm never materialised - strange!?! It ended up being another 5 mile strenuous walk.
Our final half day in Yosemite we drove to another large grove of trees (we like trees) where we did another few miles of wvalking, seeing some of the biggest Sequoia (giant redwood) trees in the park.
Then we drove on to Sequoia National park for a look at (yes, you've got it) more big trees. Of course all of this time we've been hoping to see a bear, from a distance naturally. Sadly this was not to be, although we did nearly walk straight into the deer which you can see in the photo with the massive antlers. We were both sad to be leaving the parks. We could easily have spend several weeks exploring them, but we had to move on to the bright lights of Las Vegas which i'm too tired to tell you about tonight. That story we'll save for later.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Thursday, 9 September 2010
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Napa to Yosemite
Top temperature: 104 degrees fahrenheit (hot!! in degrees celcius)
Mileage driven in USA: 1025.
Sunburn: coming along quite nicely (i keep calling colin a red neck).
Accidents: knife or otherwise: nil.
Insect bites: 1 each only.
Beard: Colin's is now as long as it was before he shaved it all off in L.A. I still don't have one!
Firstly a big thankyou to everyone who sent birthday greetings to colin. Much appreciated. So the birthday was spent in Napa valley and, as you can see from the photos, we were mostly drinking wine, and really nice wine at that. We did also manage to head up the valley during the daytime to Robert Louis Stevenson State park where we did a great little walk. Well it was great until Colin pointed out I had just stepped over a snake. Thank god i never saw it but i was a bit freaked out nonetheless. Probably not as freaked as the snake who nearly got trodden on by my size 8's!! Then in the evening we went out for an enormous steak for Colin's birthday meal.
We spent 3 lovely nights in Napa at a gorgeous B&B which is the last of the Napa photos. Apparently it has recently been filmed for a TV show which will be shown soonish in the UK called "Three in a bed". If anyone should happen to notice when the show starts being aired could you please let us know, as we promised the owner of the B&B that we'd email him if we heard anything.
The wine tour was great. Bought a few bottles to help out the Californian economy, of course! Now we're in a motel in a small town a short drive from Yosemite and not much happens here so the wine is perfect for nights in.
We're in a place called Mariposa which is about 35 miles from Yosemite park entrance. We drove there today. Even when places are not far away, it seems to take a long time to get to them in the states as the speed limit is 55mph on most roads. However, the drive into the park is so nice we don't mind having to do it for 4 days.
Went into Yosemite valley today which was so spectacular i don't think even the photos will do it justice - even the one Colin photoshopped to try to look like the original Ansel Adams one (for anyone not familiar he is famous for his photography in this area). Apart from it being summer instead of winter and the trees being bigger i think you'll agree there's not a lot of difference. It really is incredible here. You can't imagine how enormous the mountains are, and the giant redwood trees. The photo Colin posted was taken in Big Trees park (bet they thought long and hard about that one!) on the way to Mariposa where we did a 7 mile walk which was fantastic, if a little dusty.
Tomorrow we have booked some horses to take us around to give our legs a break. I have decided i would like a clean horse who is friendly. Colin just wants one that is not stubborn like one he rode when we went on holiday in Devon a few years ago. Seriously, it just wanted to eat grass, thats all! We'll let you know how that works out. Hope you're all enjoying the blog and photos.
Mileage driven in USA: 1025.
Sunburn: coming along quite nicely (i keep calling colin a red neck).
Accidents: knife or otherwise: nil.
Insect bites: 1 each only.
Beard: Colin's is now as long as it was before he shaved it all off in L.A. I still don't have one!
Firstly a big thankyou to everyone who sent birthday greetings to colin. Much appreciated. So the birthday was spent in Napa valley and, as you can see from the photos, we were mostly drinking wine, and really nice wine at that. We did also manage to head up the valley during the daytime to Robert Louis Stevenson State park where we did a great little walk. Well it was great until Colin pointed out I had just stepped over a snake. Thank god i never saw it but i was a bit freaked out nonetheless. Probably not as freaked as the snake who nearly got trodden on by my size 8's!! Then in the evening we went out for an enormous steak for Colin's birthday meal.
We spent 3 lovely nights in Napa at a gorgeous B&B which is the last of the Napa photos. Apparently it has recently been filmed for a TV show which will be shown soonish in the UK called "Three in a bed". If anyone should happen to notice when the show starts being aired could you please let us know, as we promised the owner of the B&B that we'd email him if we heard anything.
The wine tour was great. Bought a few bottles to help out the Californian economy, of course! Now we're in a motel in a small town a short drive from Yosemite and not much happens here so the wine is perfect for nights in.
We're in a place called Mariposa which is about 35 miles from Yosemite park entrance. We drove there today. Even when places are not far away, it seems to take a long time to get to them in the states as the speed limit is 55mph on most roads. However, the drive into the park is so nice we don't mind having to do it for 4 days.
Went into Yosemite valley today which was so spectacular i don't think even the photos will do it justice - even the one Colin photoshopped to try to look like the original Ansel Adams one (for anyone not familiar he is famous for his photography in this area). Apart from it being summer instead of winter and the trees being bigger i think you'll agree there's not a lot of difference. It really is incredible here. You can't imagine how enormous the mountains are, and the giant redwood trees. The photo Colin posted was taken in Big Trees park (bet they thought long and hard about that one!) on the way to Mariposa where we did a 7 mile walk which was fantastic, if a little dusty.
Tomorrow we have booked some horses to take us around to give our legs a break. I have decided i would like a clean horse who is friendly. Colin just wants one that is not stubborn like one he rode when we went on holiday in Devon a few years ago. Seriously, it just wanted to eat grass, thats all! We'll let you know how that works out. Hope you're all enjoying the blog and photos.
Monday, 6 September 2010
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Friday, 3 September 2010
Thursday, 2 September 2010
San Francisco
Just spent the past 3 nights in San Francisco which is a lovely, charming city. Much more manageable size than L.A. as you can explore it pretty much on foot in that time. Took in many of the tourist attractions. Boat trip out to Alcatraz was good fun - cold and windy and very foggy but it all adds to the atmosphere. We saw loads of seals (well we heard them honking first) in the harbour area at fisherman's wharf. Went for long walk along the coast. Rode on one of the famous cable cars over the hills clinging to the side for dear life!
As well as seeing some of the major sights we also managed to catch a baseball game too. Cheered on the SF Giants who were winning for almost all the game until the last half hour when it went a bit wrong!
Driving in SF is a bit of a nightmare as we discovered when we arrived at rush hour on our first day, so the car got parked in the hotel garage and didn't come out again until we left today, and of course Colin had to drive! By now though we'd really got the hang of those pesky american road junctions and Colin has learnt that, when we don't know who's right of way it is, it is apparently ours!! So far it has worked out for us. We've had very few beeps from other cars and not been arrested once by those pesky american police.
So today we left SF and drove further north out of the city over the Golden Gate bridge, which for once wasn't covered in mist so we managed to get some photos of the whole bridge, not just the top sticking out over the mist. Then it was less than an hour to our next stop where we are staying for the next few nights. We're in Napa which is famous for it's wine so we may just have a few tastings. Particularly tomorrow when it is Colin's birthday.
Napa seems like a nice town. Went for a walk around and got some lunch there. Then we headed back to our hotel which has a nice pool, - great this afternoon when the mercury hit about 93 degrees. Finally a day of relaxation, which we both appreciated after the chaos of city life. Tomorrow we're planning to drive up to the top of the valley where there are some geysers and hot springs as well as vineyards all the way so hopefully colin will have a nice birthday. I'll be doing all the driving of course. We also plan to take in a wine tour so neither of us needs to drive. Genius plan. Next stop will be Yosemite National Park which we were intending to go to a bit sooner but apparently americans have a bank holiday on monday and the entire nation go to Yosemite so Kim and Colin couldn't find a place to stay so we just have to stay here and drink more wine. Bummer!!!!!
As well as seeing some of the major sights we also managed to catch a baseball game too. Cheered on the SF Giants who were winning for almost all the game until the last half hour when it went a bit wrong!
Driving in SF is a bit of a nightmare as we discovered when we arrived at rush hour on our first day, so the car got parked in the hotel garage and didn't come out again until we left today, and of course Colin had to drive! By now though we'd really got the hang of those pesky american road junctions and Colin has learnt that, when we don't know who's right of way it is, it is apparently ours!! So far it has worked out for us. We've had very few beeps from other cars and not been arrested once by those pesky american police.
So today we left SF and drove further north out of the city over the Golden Gate bridge, which for once wasn't covered in mist so we managed to get some photos of the whole bridge, not just the top sticking out over the mist. Then it was less than an hour to our next stop where we are staying for the next few nights. We're in Napa which is famous for it's wine so we may just have a few tastings. Particularly tomorrow when it is Colin's birthday.
Napa seems like a nice town. Went for a walk around and got some lunch there. Then we headed back to our hotel which has a nice pool, - great this afternoon when the mercury hit about 93 degrees. Finally a day of relaxation, which we both appreciated after the chaos of city life. Tomorrow we're planning to drive up to the top of the valley where there are some geysers and hot springs as well as vineyards all the way so hopefully colin will have a nice birthday. I'll be doing all the driving of course. We also plan to take in a wine tour so neither of us needs to drive. Genius plan. Next stop will be Yosemite National Park which we were intending to go to a bit sooner but apparently americans have a bank holiday on monday and the entire nation go to Yosemite so Kim and Colin couldn't find a place to stay so we just have to stay here and drink more wine. Bummer!!!!!
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Photo Albums from LA and Pacific Coast now on Picasa
Click on the pictures in the two posts below to view our photos from LA and the Pacific Coast Highway. More from San Franciso coming soon.
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