London -> Cheltenham -> London
Highlight
- Terrible weather, but at least the bus ride was smooth, and the seats were much more comfortable than the ride to Cardiff, there was so much leg room I couldn’t reach the foot rest.
- Got forced to walk around in the rain for hours with my non-waterproof shoes that I wore especially for the restaurant.
- Walked to the unremarkable Pittville Park, with a lake that is foreshadowed by some 70s high rise. The Pittville Pump Room was not that impressive. Plus, I’ve seen it all before anyway, and it was such a long tack to get there.
- Walked a long time to the restaurant again, and not only my shoes, but the bottom of my pants were soaked by the time we sat down.
- While the restaurant was good, it was not that great. The waiters were attentive, but except for the exceptional desserts, everything else was very ordinary. They don’t even have a degustation menu! Read my full review here.
- Very quick walk around Montpellier Walk and Montpellier Street, with some very quirky shops. However, Slokky didn’t think it was a smart idea to stop and look, so I missed out on seeing any of them.
- Brief walk through the Imperial Gardens, where the flowers didn’t really live up to expectations.
- It was so boring that the highlight was probably buying some Columbia pants at Blacks.
- I was extremely glad when it was time to get the bus home.
Food
- chocolate croissant
- orange juice
- taste test cinnamon bagel
- Le Champignon Sauvage lunch:
- cheese puff
- potato and leek soup with elderflower
- bacon brioche
- Dived Shetland Scallops - with Jerusalem artichoke puree, globe artichoke with liquorice root
- Bibury Brown Trout - risotto of wild garlic, roasted garlic cream
- Cinderford Lamb - smoked roasted onion, cep mushroom puree
- Gloucester Old Spot Pork Belly
- Salted Chicory Root Iced Mousse - vanilla rice pudding, rich chocolate sorbet
- Bitter Chocolate and Olive Tart - fennel ice cream
Cardiff -> London
Highlight
- The breakfast was very boring. There was not much choice and the food was not particularly nice. The waffles were the best. Still, it didn’t stop us from eating a lot so we could save money.
- Visited the Riverside market, which had just about the same stores as the Roath market yesterday. There were a few extras but we were too full from breakfast to really have a good look.
- There were some good views of the Millennium Stadium, and if the weather was better, a lovely spot by the river though.
- Did the Cardiff City to Bay walk via some newly regenerated areas with scattered artworks.
- Explored some Torchwood locations and looked at the wave design of the Wales Millennium Centre
- It started raining so we postponed our walk to see the Doctor Who exhibition. Slokky was really excited but I still didn’t understand anything about the show. Luckily the exhibition was short so we got out of there really fast.
- Rain has stopped, but it was still cold and windy, especially when we wondered towards the Bay. There was some water skiing championship on as well, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to them.
- There had been some major development going on the waterfront, with the results being some cool buildings, including the National Assembly and the Tourist Information Centre.
- Visited the Norwegian church where Roald Dahl (born in Cardiff!) was baptised. Nothing special there, especially since we saw quite a few Norwegian churches last week.
- Had a look at the display in the Tourist Information Centre about the Cardiff Bay development, before taking the taff trail back to city.
- Visited the National Museum for an impressive collection of French impressionists, for Cardiff, they had quite a few Monet and Renoir, as well as a scattering of other notables. The information was presented quite nicely, and I could have happily spent a few more hours there, but alas, we wanted to go and get our faggots and peas.
- Alas, Victoria markets were closed, so no faggots and peas.
- Instead we went to Howells/House of Fraser to see that old church they incorporated into the architecture. It was ok…and the department store was ok too…but I didn’t really need to go out of my way to see it.
- Plan B was the Bali Restaurant. I wasn’t hoping for much, after all the dismal Asians I’ve had in London, but I was really surprised. The two tables of other Asians enjoying a feast was encouraging, so we decided to order the special lunch menu. We were in a rush so didn’t have time to enjoy the laksa and soups they had on offer, but the food was surprisingly tasty, and pretty good for the price we paid.
- Off to the coach, where we were stuck in traffic, so it took nearly 4 hours to get back.
Food
- Mariott hotel breakfast:
- bran flakes with dried fruit, stewed fruits, fresh fruit and yoghurt
- chocolate muffin
- blueberry muffin
- sausage
- baked beans
- scrambled eggs
- tomatoes
- mushrooms
- bacon
- pancake with maple syrup
- waffle with maple syrup
- orange juice
- dinner at Bali Restaurant
- chicken satay
- potato cake
- chicken curry
- nasi goreng
London -> Cardiff
Highlight
- Had to sit separately on the bus, but the ride was comfortable.
- The weather was very overcast, but luckily it cleared up to be very nice later in the day.
- Checked in the hotel which was being refurbished, but at least we got a room already, with a kettle!
- I didn’t realise the hotel had a spa and pool, so decided to go to Primark for some £1 bikini and £1 bottoms.
- Walked to the Roath farmers Market, which was a genuine Welsh market. We got there quite late so a lot of things were sold out, but we managed to pick up a lovely Avril's Country Kitchen garlic aubergine chutney, smoked Caephilly cheese and Welsh cakes.
- Took a long walk through the suburbs and the lovely architecture all around to Roath Park with the lake and swams and paddle boats and flowers, and of course the families all out in force, all very British indeed.
- Caught the bus back and did the Centenary walk, which lets you see almost all of Cardiff. Highlights were the Bute Park and Cardiff University area, with its fantastic architecture. The fantastic covered arcades are great too, although we have seen a few of those now.
- Slokky got his haircut at a "young people" place for £15, but they charged £30 for ladies It wasn’t as good as Rennes of course, but it was not too bad.
- managed to wonder a few shops too but not too much to buy.
- Had an early dinner, which was fine, but nothing spectacular. Read the reviews here.
- Spent 45 minutes in the nice if old pool, spa and sauna area, so my £2 swimmers went to good use.
- Complained about the noise of the disco downstairs (why is it that we always get disco at our hotels?), so got “upgraded”, or more likely, just upped, to a family room on the 10th floor. There was no more disco noise, but the noise from the boilder kept me up for most of the night anyway.
Food
- Lindor raspberry
- pina colada tea
- taste test jams and cheese
- welsh cake with jam (£1.50)
- blueberry muffin
- Spice Quarter dinner:
- poppadoms
- Gilafi Seekh Kebab (£4.70
- Chicken Malai Tikka (£4.70
- Shahi Chicken Korma (£8.75
- ) Lamb Pasanda (£9.45)
- Peshawari Naan (£2.65)
- Lasooni Naan (£2.65)
- mango lassi
- sweet lassi
Bergen -> Oslo -> London
Highlight
- The weather started to turn bad, it was cloudy windy and raining. We didn’t even get some brief periods of sunshine.
- Brygen lived up to its reputation. Lots of lovely coloured crooked houses.
- Explored the few surviving winding streets and visited the quirky but touristy shops.
- Then walked along the foreshore to <> Tower, hall and castle.
- Tried to visit <> church but it ws closed, so back toe the fish market, which was now in full swing. I was still too full from breakfast, and as it wasn’t time to stock up yet, we decided to split up, so Danny and Cathy could go up to Funicular.
- Started to browse a few shops. Pretty soon though, we decided that we couldn’t afford anything, so only did some brief window shopping before stopping.
- Went to Baker Brun and Gord Brod to try the skillingbolle (cinnamon ball). The Gord Brod one was better in my opinion, although both had their good points.
- Ran out of things to do, so just wandered the streets, looked in <> church, went to the Botanical Gardens.
- Finally went to stock up at the supermarket and the fish market. Got to try everything at the fish market before we bought. The whale meat didn’t taste too bad, but definitely didn’t taste nice enough to be killing all those whales for, so I didn’t buy any.
- Got on the very crowded bus to the airport, then some excitement happened.
- It turned out that SAS had overbooked their flight, and offered us to be bumped off for a €300 travel voucher each. We decided that our time wasn’t worth that much so we took it, and spent time in Oslo and landed at Heathrow.
- Everything actually went smoothly. The planes were not crowded and we were given pretty good seats. We were about 2 hours delayed for our trouble, but of course as soon as we got to Heathrow, everything went wrong. We had to taxi for abges before we could land, they couldn’t connect to our plane so we had to wait about 15 minutes for some stairs, there were lots of people at customs (which we would’ve avoided if we were early as they were all from the last plane from some Arab country, so everything there got questioned for extra long. Those customs officers are definitely prejudiced), there were 6 people working only, we got shoved in the wrong line.
- For a flight that was suppose to arrive at 9:20, we got out of there at 11pm, so once again, UK inefficiencies ruins another holiday.
Food
- Incity breakfast:
- bread with 7 cold cuts, cheese, herring, salad, pate, tuna, smoked salmon and sardine
- muesli and rice puffs with grapes
- apple juice
- skillingbolle (cinnamon bun) x2
- skillingbolle with custard
- skollenbolle (coconut and custard)
- taste test: smoked fish, gravalaz, wild and farmed salmon, whale meat, clavier, smoked moose, smoked reindeer
- apple juice
Bergen -> Myrdal -> Flam -> Gudvangen -> Voss -. Bergen
Highlight
- A very long day ahead of travelling, and as our tour started very early and breakfast started late on a Sunday, we had to quickly wolf down our breakfast, like everyone else.
- Amazingly, we chose the right side of the Myrdal train to sit on (which was incidentally, the right side), so we were able to enjoy the spectacular scenery.
- Unfortunately, we didn’t do the same with the Flam railway (which was the left side this time), and as it was extremely crowded with tourists, we couldn’t actually run to a spare window to take any pictures. What annoyed me though, were all the tourists who reserved the right seats, but were too busy talking to even look out the window!!
- Watched a cheesy performance on our 5 minute stop to view a waterfall, where some woman comes out and dances to some eerie music. The performance lasted 3 minutes, after which time we all piled back onto the train again.
- Flam was very beautiful. We hired a bike from the very trusty tourist info, where they don’t even lock up their bikes. For 50NOK for an hour, it was well worth it, as we covered a lot more ground, although if you just took the bikes, they wouldn’t know anyway. But we were honest.
- We managed to ride to the Marina, a waterfall and a stave church, which was coolly painted on the inside.
- It was thrilling to ride through the mountain and water, and the weather was perfect.
- Had a look at the not very interesting Flam Museum, before fighting it out with everyone to get on the boat.
- Passed through some very nice scenery but it was too crowded to really enjoy it. We found relieve on the bottom deck, where there were no chairs and no speakers to hear the commentary, but you could see the scenery and there were no people.
- Another day of beautiful warm weather, but slightly cloudy at times. For Bergen and surrounds, this is excellent, considering they have like 260 days of rainfall a year.
- We actually bumped into Franklin and Danny on the cruise, what a small world. Because of the crowd though, we couldn’t really hang around together.
- We hung around Gudvangen instead of trying to rush for the bus when the cruise docked…bad mistake. They had miscalculated the number of people that were on the cruise and as a result, they weren’t enough buses, so we had to fight with everyone else to get on, and we didn’t end up getting a window seat on the bus.
- That was good and bad in a way, good because we got to take pictures from both sides of the bus, but bad because we weren’t in the best position.
- And the scenery were spectacular too. Went through Naeroydalen and up Stalheimskleiva (Stalhein Road), which climbs up the mountain between the Stalheim (126m) and Sivle (146m) waterfalls, with 13 hairpin bends and 20o slope.
- Even more amazing, we saw all these people running UP this road, apparently there was a race on the next weekend and everyone was training for it.
- The views once you reached the top of this mountain was absolutely spectacular, overlooking the Naeroy Valley.
- Had a brief stop at Voss, the “Adventure Town”, before we had to get back on the train, but of course we didn’t’ have the time to do any adventure activities.
- We did manage to see the lake, Olav’s Cross dating from 1023, the Bergslien monument, the Mosafinn Memorial and Vangskyrkja (Voss church).
- Then back on the last connection, an extremely crowded train, back to Bergen.
- Had dinner at what looked like a uni hangout, serving café fare with a focus on soup. The reindeer soup was very gamey but you couldn’t really taste reindeer as much as the mushrooms.
Food
- Incity breakfast:
- bread with 7 cold cuts, cheese, herring, salad, pate, tuna and sardine
- muesli and rice puffs with melon yoghurt
- apple juice
- Zuperia dinner:
- seafood soup with baguette
- reindeer mushroom soup with baguette
- raspberry yoghurt soup
- cappuccino cake
Bergen
Highlight
- Asked to swap room, room next door also did the same thing. Went from 303 to 608.
- Everything opened later than stated, but everyone came very early to breakfast. They must all want to rush off somewhere.
- Breakfast had the usual offerings. I didn’t eat as much as usual because I didn’t feel so well from not sleeping at all the night before.
- Supermarket and tourist info, before a stop at the fish market. Although it was past 8am, the stalls were still just opening. There were lots of live crab, salmon, trout and caviar, as well as whale meat.
- Walked past Korskirken Cathedral and some bread shops on the way to the Funicular.
- We were the last to get on so didn’t get the front views. You could see the same views at the top viewing point anyway.
- The weather was glorious and we spent quite some time taking snaps.
- Started on our walk. There was not much people to start with, but got busier as the day wore on.
- The walk itself was very nice. We started by the coast, moved up and down mountain ridges. Pine forests and mountains were the main views, as well as the water when we were near the coast of course.
- There was a nice breeze but the sun shone for most of the day.
- There were a few difficult sections with mud and steep climbs, but the worst had to be my shoes, which started rubbing on and bruising my toes. After about 5 hours, I couldn’t walk downhill without hurting, so the 600m descent we had to do over some very steep hills and loose rocks absolutely killed me and took about 3 times as long as normal. I was really glad to get down.
- Spent 10 am to 6pm walking, although we did have a lot of stops along the way for food and photos.
- Finally got down, found the bus and had a brief walk around the harbour. Now there were lots of people out and about, enjoying themselves, and eating ice-cream.
- Decided to have dinner at a place close to our hotel as I really couldn’t bear the walk. It was actually very good (but expensive as usual). Modern Norwegian using traditional ingredients. The only hiccup was the rice that came with the scallops, which was very hard and was too salty.
- Slokky made me mad by substituting his asparagus, which I REALLY wanted to try, for trout, even though he could’ve swapped his scallops since I was getting the same though. He claimed he didn’t hear me even though I stated various facts I wanted the scallop swapped: trying more of the menu, scallop and trout being the same price…etc etc. The fact that he thought I would even consider swapping asparagus really annoyed me, so another perfectly pleasant meal was ruined.
Food
- In City breakfast:
- bread with 7 cold cuts, cheese, herring, salad, pate, tuna and sardine
- muesli and rice puffs with apple
- apple juice
- cherry milk drink
- fish cakes
- Smayet mat og Vinhus dinner:
- bread with garlic butter oil and vinegar, aioli
- Aquavit cured mountain trout with crab and pistachio aoili
- monkfish with sundried tomato
- pan fried red fish with apple and basil puree, fish veloute
- rack of lamb with creamed artichokes, Norwegian carrots and shallot confit demi-glaze
- rhubarb parfait with hazelnut and strawberry
- pan fried scallops with pumpkin risotto and balsamic vinegar
- Entrecote with brie de meaux, mango sauce, sauteed cep mushroom and summer cabbage
- Valhrona chocolate cake with cherry sorbet
- rose granita
London -> Bergen
Highlight
- Plane took off ½ hour late. The airport was very busy as usual with long weekend travellers.
- Still, we managed to land only a few minutes late but had to wait ages fot the Flybus to leave anyway. At least we got to pick the best spot to sit.
- The city though, was in full swing when we arrived. People dressed in their naughtiest and sexiest outfits were wondering the streets, falling in and out of nightclubs.
- We finally got to bed at 1:30am, but couldn’t sleep the whole night because of the really really loud music in the nightclub anyway.
San Francisco -> Minnesoda -> London
Highlight
- Early morning start, walked to bus depot as the BART wasn’t running yet.
- Took awhile to find the right bus, but after that it was easy, and got there with just the right time again.
- Got "selected" for screening, so at least I got to bypass the queue. Even though the tests were longer, at least they were more interesting. Did an air test where I had to walk through this device thing, then got all my stuff checked and my shoes tested, at least it passed the time.
- Flight was very full, but at least on time. I couldn’t choose a nice seat though as everyone else could check in on-line. I was squashed in the middle seat and at the back of the plane.
- Lunch at Minnesoda/St Paul, walked the whole airport and wrote my blog to pass time. At least I didn’t have to pick up my bag.
- No queues at the airport, so I got home nice and early.
Food
- caramel slice
- oat and berry bran muffin
- cheese scone
- oyster biscuits
- NW airline dinner:
- lettuce salad
- chicken, mash and vegetables
- cheese and biscuits
- apple pieces
- apple juice
- egg and cheese roll
San Francisco
Highlight
- Tried to pack in a very full day. The 1st day of touring with Slokky and also a very nice day.
- 1st stop, the Ferry Building’s farmers market. It was a lot of fun with a great array of produce. Lots of taste testing allowed. Unfortunately, the produce, especially the dairy, was not really up to the standard I’ve had in Oz and in the UK.
- Tried the SF oysters – very different to the Australian ones but great tasting.
- Great Mexican stand where they press fresh tortillas. Got some chicken mole with a to die for chocolate chilli sauce.
- Got some baked goodies for the flight.
- Walked down The Embarcardoro to see Cupid and the Bay Bridge.
- Got the N-tram to AT&T Park. Slokky used the GO card to get in. I rushed back to the ferry building, but the Ferry Lien Cruise was cancelled for the rest of the year, so I rushed to Fishermans Wharf and just made the Red & White Cruise.
- Glorious weather, so got some great pictures of the SF skyline and the GG Bridge.
- Learned more about SF than you need to know with the American way of having commentary on everything.
- On the Boudin Bakery tour, where there’s even more info on SF. Great smell and you get to watch the factory at work. The best thing though had to be the tasting room at the end. I tried 4 different types of breads and there was no one there, so I got my $3 worth in eating. There were 3 dips there too, but they were more of an afterthought.
- Slokky had to try his burger joint, so went to In N Out for a “double double”, which is better than McDonalds, but that’s about it. The milkshake was good old fashioned stuff though, the chips were crap.
- Finally to Go Car, a three wheel glorified motorbike. You get GPS guided tour of SF. Our 1st car didn’t’ work so we had to go back for another. At least we got used to the car with the first one.
- It was a really cool way to do SF, if it’s a glorious day and you don’t mind everyone staring at you.
- Got to do all the stuff I couldn’t do my bys. Highlight was driving along the beach. At Fork Point, in the Presidio with the cliff face side, along the cool streets of Cow Hollow and Chestnut Street, and of course, driving down Lombard street.
- After 1.5 hours, we were happy but cold from the wind, so stopped of for that last bowl of chowder (no bread this time as this wasn’t lunch). This time at nick’s Lighthouse. Ok, it was better than bebella and La Torre, but that’s about it. Next time I come to SF, I definitely want to try a bowl at a better restaurant. The tourist spots never deliver, but you have to do it at least once, and I’ve now done it twice!
- Finally made it to Pier 39, that’s where all the tourists were. Consisting mainly of touristy food joints (think ice cream, donuts, hot dogs and pretzels) and heaps of lolly shops, gift shops. It didn’t hold much interest. Step to the back though, and we got glorious view of the bay at dusk.
- Aquarium on the Bay was closing early for a function,, so it only left us with ½ hour to see everything. Turned out that’s all the time you really need. It was a very small space, mainly for viewing for children, with 2 big tanks being their main attraction. Sydney Aquarium trumps them anyday.
- Another long bus trip to Yabbies for our 1st seafood dinner. Got a seafood platter – excellent sauce and the sweetest Dungess crab and the SF signature soup, the cippano. So much better than the room service one. The desserts were comfy and sweet.
- Back to the hotel to pack and SF is over.
- Still didn’t see:
- Cloat Tower
- Twin peaks
- West of Golden Gate Park
- Lincoln Park
- mission district
- Grace cathedral
- cable Car Museum
- Full House and after Victorian Houses
- steak house
- diner
- ice cream
- French Laundry!!
- shopping
Food
- lemon scone
- 10 oysters ($20)
- chicken mole ($9.50)
- boudin bread: sourdough, multi grain, asiago cheese, chocolate raisin
- In and Out double double burger, chips and strawberry shake
- Nick’s Lighthouse clam chowder with oyster biscuits
- Yabbies Coastal Kitchen dinner:
- baguette
- cippano with dunguese crab
- seafood platter: oyster, prawn, clam, mussel, dunguese crab, shrimp salad, avocado and tortilla
San Francisco -> Napa -> San Francisco
Highlight
- Breakfast at a “scone” (the American scone as opposed to the English “jam and scone” scone) place. The American muffin was moist and soft, but the scone were really disappointing.
- Tried the morning coffee at the hotel (not great), before heading to wait for my tour.
- Gray Line didn’t have a chip machine, so I couldn’t test out the theory of whether my Go pass was for 1 day or 5.
- There was quite a large group of more than 30 going for the tour. Our driver/tour guide had been doing this for over 45 years! He gave us a running commentary and lame jokes the whole way.
- Glorious blue skies, beautiful green running hills with orange vines.
- Stop 1: Napa Valley Visitor centre for tastings. Of note was an Orange Muscat.
- Stop 2: Drop people off at the wine train.
- Along the Silverado trail, to St Helena and Sutter Home estates. We couldn’t stop at a lot of places as they don’t take coaches…hehe, don’t want a big bunch of free loaders stopping off, I don’t blame them.
- Stop 3: Sutter Home – really cheap but really bad wine. I tasted 3 and then gave up.
- Stop 4: Yontville – home of yuppy and gourmet dining, including The French Laundry. I went back later to take pictures.
- Had lunch at the Bouchon bakery as I didn’t want to get too full for the party tonight. The restaurants sounded very appealing though.
- The pastries were wonderful, I enjoyed them in the garden of Bouchon with a Belgium couple who were doing some sort of religious study in Orlando. They were just complaining about the size of American meals the whole time.
- Walked around the shops, looking for shoes to got with my dress. There were lots of nice stuff on sale but they didn’t go with my dress.
- Stop 5: pick people up from the Wine Train.
- stop 6: Madonna Estate. Got a talk and cellar tour. The best thing was being taught how to taste wine (yeah I know I was told this before, but I can never remember…), so here it is: swirl, sniff, roll around, gulp air, taste, spit (if desired).
- The wine here were, finally, quite nice, but I didn’t buy anything as I didn’t really want to lug it.
- We got taught how to check the cork as well….but I can’t remember that already :p. Screw top is the future anyway.
- They had some cool wine opening gadgets on sale, but as we had already just invested in a bottle opener, and more because of the fact that we almost never drink any wine, I didn’t buy it.
- A long bus back, the traffic was not too bad.
- I did a mad dash around the Embacadero Centre to get stuff for the party.
- I needed metallic shoes, which were quite hard to find. If it had been black shoes I needed, I would’ve been done already. I found some I liked at Banana Republic but they couldn’t find the other shoe!
- Managed to pick up a pashmina and beaded bag at Georgino at 25% off only. I don’t think I’ve shopped that just in my life!
- More transport to City Hall. It was a bit strange to be all dressed up to go on public transport, but it was Christmas season, so people are probably used to it.
- The venue was excellent, it had been lit up by lots of different colour lights (haha, sure beats the drinks in a bar for HSBC). There were different rooms with different food and music. The best was the Mexican. The desserts selection was small and too sweet for my taste.
- Lined up to get photos taken. They put them against a background of snow and the Golden gate. We chatted to some interesting people while waiting in the line.
- I don’t know about the rest of the USA, but San Franciscans are definitely stylish and skinny! I thought it would be a pretty relaxing kind of party, but people were dressed really formally.
- Met Slokky’s workmates and his boss, and generally had a great time. It was freezing by the end of the night though, so my pashmina was money well spent.
Food
- Specialties breakfast:
- cranberry and yoghurt muffin
- mocha scone
- blueberry and lemon scone
- choc chip and yoghurt croissant
- Bouchon bakery lunch:
- cream cheese danish with ginger
- pistachio brioche
- BGI Christmas Party dinner:
- cold cuts
- olives, eggplant dip
- bruschetta
- pasta – ravioli, tagitelli
- corn chips with salsa
- mole with corn
- pumpkin mash
- country style stew
- vegetable and salad
- cranberry juice
- chocolate, caramel and vanilla cupcakes
- caramel slice
- apple turnover
- marinated mahi-mahi
- candy bar
San Francisco
Highlight
- Another rainy day, at least there’s no fog (yet)
- Slokky made me walk a long way to Noah’s Bagel, even though there was one closer, and didn’t take the blame for it.
- Another long bus ride out and changes to Golden Gate Park to view the Golden Gate Bridge. The bus stopped in the middle of the park. I snapped loads of pictures, but I couldn’t see that well, since the fog has started again.
- I didn’t have time to walk across and had to fight with the Chinese tourists to take photos.
- Caught another bus to the Palace of Fine Arts – very pretty, probably more so in the rain, giving it a mysterious quality. Fought with another truck load of Chinese, one who actually told me to move away so she could take a photo!
- Heaps and heaps of kids at the Exploratorium. It was definitely heaps of fun, but a lot of exhibits I’ve already done at the Science Centre at Valencia. Still, it’s always fun to play with. I did about half of the museum before I had to leave.
- Another bus back to Fisherman’s Wharf to pick up my Go San Francisco Pass. They seemed to have given me a 5 day pass instead of the 1 day, so that meant I had a huge change of plans.
- Lunch at the stand up bars at Fishermans wharf. No tourists today as the rain was very ejavy. Nick’s Lighthouse, the stand with heaps of people, ignored me, so I went next door instead. The meal was not that nice, there was no seafood
- I had only 2.5 hours left in the day to use my card, and I wanted to do the bakery tour at Boudin, but it wasn’t running today for some reason, so went to the Wax Museum instead.
- It was very scary, not for the right reasons though, more for the fact that I was the only one there and the figures looked really ugly and nothing like the real people they were representing.
- Tried to go to the Asian Art Museum, but got very stuck in traffic, and didn’t get across town until 4:30, so didn’t get to go.
- Missed Zeum as well, so spent about 40 minutes at Y and the Dalai lama exhibit.
- Slokky was 10 minutes late to meet up, so I could’ve spent the time finishing the exhibit afterall.
- SFMMA – finished Matisse and did the Olafur Eliasson with the BMW, the freezer and the light effects, very cool.
- Then joined a really crappy supposed “highlight” tour. Instead I got told how to use the stairs and read signs, and wasted 45 minutes of my time.
- Only got to finish the “box artish” Joseph before the museum closed.
- I was still full from my late lunch, so cancelled our Waterfront booking to go to Chinatown instead. Big disappointment. It was very boring, everything was closed, and there was no people in any of the restaurants.
- Back to Union Square, Macy for fast food.
- Managed to get my dress for the Christmas party in record time.
- It was raining very hard, and we couldn’t get a bus, so got soaked walking back to the hotel.
Food
- Noah’s bagel breakfast:
- sun dried tomato, peppers and pesto with onion and chive "shmear"
- sourdough with garlic herb shmear
- Sabella and LaTorre’s clam chowder in a sourdough bread roll
- Jamba Juice peanut butter moo’d smoothie – all natural peanut butter, bananas, choc moo’d bake, non fat frozen yoghurt, soy milk
- macaroni and cheese
- shoe string chips with ketchup.
San Francisco
Highlight
- Breakfasted at a cool bakery, then a long bus ride to try to get into Golden Gate Park. No bus actually stop there, so I had to get off at the edge of the park and walk.
- Lots of Chinese doing their morning tai chi and others walking their dog.
- Did the whole East side, took 1.5 hours.
- The highlight of the park was definitely the Conservatory of Flowers and Stow Lake.
- Saw lots of squirrel up a tree.
- de Young Museum has great design and architecture. The highlight was the free docent tours every ½ hour. I went on Arts of the Americas as a private tour as I was the only one who wanted to go! Then did Leverson (cool) and African and Oceanic. Explanations posted were excellent and there were heaps of different stuff to see.
- Went to level 9 observation tower for 360 degree views around the park, including the new Academy of Sciences.
- Left reluctantly after only seeing about 1/4 of the museum, as by now I was extremely hungry and need to go to the Legion of Honour.
- The weather has taken a turn for the worst. I was greeted by cold and a very heavy fog. Caught bus #3 to the west end of the park. Saw a hazy dutch windmill and then tried to find the other windmill, but I couldn’t see anything in the fog and masses of trees.
- Gave up my hunt for the windmill and went to Ocean beach instead, but there was some oil spill so the water was covered with oil and I couldn’t go on the beach at all.
- Legion of Honour in Lincoln Park, which is virtually a golf course, not that I could see very much of the park because of the fog.
- This museum was less interesting for me as most of the stuff I’ve seen before, and much more of it around Europe. As usual, the explanations here were much better than anywhere in Europe, with the exception of perhaps Amsterdam.
- The highlight were definitely their Rodin (of The Thinker and The Kiss fame. They had quite a collection, which I hadn’t seen before. Also, their collection of surrealism books added to my SFMMA experience.
- Nearly finished the whole thing (including reading everything) when it closed. In hindsight, I should’ve spent more time at De Young.
- Did the multiple bus change and more than 1 hour of gridlock with multiple stops before finally making it mack to the hotel.
- Took the BART to Berkerly. Looked pretty much the same as SF. Went to University of Berkerly but it was so dark we couldn’t really see anything.
- We had to wait until 8:15 for the 2nd seating for dinner at Chez Panisse. Luckily, a supermarket opposite the restaurant meant we could waste some time. Got some Lindt on special and Ghirardelli for pressies, otherwise nothing of much interest.
- Chez Panisse was supposed to be in the Top 100 restaurants in the world, but I was underwhelmed. The food was good, especially dessert and the service pleasant, but there was nothing to give me that "Wow" factor. I thought it was about the same as Range.
- Another long ride back, with back pain, cold, stomach ache and extremely sleepy, not a great end to a great day.
Food
- French toast – buttered brioche bread with maple syrup ($4.25)
- Poppy seed muffin ($1.95)
- sour cream coffee pineapple cake ($2.95)
- Chez Panisse dinner:
San Francisco
Highlight
- Had an early breakfast at the San Francisco Soup Company.
- Nothing was opened – I went to the Ferry Building for the supposed farmers market, but it wasn’t opening until 2pm. However, there were some cool shops in there (shut) and nice architecture.
- Back to Pier 33 to inquire about the missing cruise ticket, but it turns out that the cruise they advertised was substituted with the Alcaltraz one.
- Booked my Napa Valley tour.
- Got my keys cut for $2 but they didn’t have the particular key that I wanted so couldn’t get it all cut.
- Got a haircut at a convenient place. They got it completely wrong. It was way shorter than what I asked for and it was uneven. It was the worst paid haircut I’ve ever got. To add insult, it was expensive at $18 and it was done by Asians!!
- Went to the California Academy of Sciences – completely misleading name. Really an aquarium and insect place, not science. It was under renovation so there wasn’t much to see. I shared it with heaps of kids.
- Walked around Westfield – Bloomingdales, Nostrun and the food shop. It was very cool but I didn’t buy anything so I don’t have to carry anything around.
- Finally got the historic cable car. It was still crowded so I couldn’t sit on the outside.
- Got off (in the middle of the street, cool!) and looked at some Victorian Houses.
- Walked up Lambart St (known as the crookest street). Very cool and had good views too, but it was a bit foggy today.
- Down to Fishermans Wharf shops for photos because the sun came up. Browsed some shops (EB was the same price as everywhere else).
- Yerba Buena Garden – pretty, with a Martin Luther King Memorial fountain.
- SFMOMA – beautiful architecture. Joined a very detailed tour that explained a few paintings. I like Picasso and Maltese. I still don’t know how to appreciate the art that are just lines and blank canvas though.
- It was interesting to walk around the museum as there was actually information explaining the interpretation. It was free on the 1st Tuesday of the month, and since I didn’t finish it, I can come back again.
- Went to See’s Candies for free samples and some chocolates. It’s quite cheap for what you get.
- Got some replacement nail clipper and water at the pharmacy.
- Dinner in the Mission area. Range has one Michelin star. The food was very similar to Mod Oz or Mod Brit, but it was with "American" ingredients. The cocktails were excellent.
- Had a hot chocolate at Ghirardelli Square. It was nice but WAY too sweet.
- Caught the cable car back. Great views, got to hang on the outside finally.
- There was some police hold and that blocked the streets for some reason, so we had a long walk back to the hotel.
Food
- Kara's Cupcake Buttery Buttermilk Vanilla ($3) – vanilla cupcake with a Madagascar bourbon vanilla buttercream
- San Francisco Soup Company new England Clam Chowder ($5.99) – with clams, potatoes and bacon with a sourdough bread
- sourdough bread with mayo and sweet relish
- orange juice
- See’s candies dark chocolate truffle
- Range dinner:
- Hawaiian ono
- steak with horseradish
- date tart
- persimmon and lime cocktail
- Ghirardelli decadent hot chocolate with biscotti ($4.95)
San Francisco
Highlight
- Breakfasted at bagel place – so many choices of bagels. We of course completed the deal with a giant coffee, the only size they sell in the US it seems.
- Walked along The Embacedero to Pier 33. Saw some fat seagulls, a guy fishing for crabs and caught them in a net with raw chicken.
- Got the City Pass and went for a cruise to Alcatraz. There weren’t too many people yet but the weather was pretty good.
- All the places in Alcatraz was just like the Tony Hawk game. It was surreal as it seemed like I had already been there. I made sure I walked the whole island and read every sign.
- Standout of course was the cellhouse and the exercise yard for the great view.
- The audio tour which covered the cellhouse was pretty good.
- Joined a walking tour that talked about the famous escapes on the island.
- The weather was starting to turn by the time I made it back to the mainland.
- Went to Hyde St Pier and the museum to look at some maritime boats, then wanted to get cable car up to Lombard St, but there were too many people waiting, so I walked along the foreshore to Ghirardelli Square to look at the factory and sample lots of chocolate instead.
- Bought a very cute cupcake – it tasted deletable too!
- Took a very long bus ride on the famous American grid system of roads down Polk St, with the cool shops.
- Spent ages going from station to station to try to get a MUNI passport for Slokky, the first one closed early (lazy soot), the second one didn’t sell them and the third one had a huge line of everyone all wanting a MUNI!!
- Dinner at the very American Cheesecake Factory, on the top floor of Macys. There were HEAPS of people there, but at least they give you a buzzer which goes off as you wait for a table, so you can have a shop around while you wait.
- There were lots of stuff I wanted to buy – including a carpet! But we decided we didn’t have enough time to make an informed choice.
- Finally got buzzed and we weren’t disappointed with the American experience. Everything was crumbed and deep fried and the servings were HUGE! Good thing we could order an appetiser and entrée and be very full, so GUI could foot the bill without us having to pay for anything.
- We had to try the desserts though, it is called the Cheesecake Factory afterall. The peanut butter cheesecake was so rich I couldn’t move afterwards. I must’ve eaten a week’s calorie in a meal.
- Had another walk around Macys. The clothes were great. I bet NY would be fab for shopping, but there were so many things not my size. I didn’t get to spend too long there though ‘cos Slokky was complaining, so we took more transport rides back.
Food
- asagao cheese and spinach bagel
- choc chip bagel with peanut butter and jelly
- coffee
- cranbbery juice
- sourdough bread
- Ghirardelli chocolate peppermint bark
- dinner at The Cheesecake Factory:
- buffalo Blasts – chicken breast , cheese and spicy buffalo sauce all stuffed in a spiced wrapper and fried until crisp, served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing ($8.95)
- white and brown bread
- chicken Madeira – sautéed chicken breast topped with fresh asparagus and fresh mushroom and melted mozzarella cheese, covered with fresh mushroom, Meideira sauce and served with mashed potatoes and shrimps with cloves of garlic, fresh basil and tomato ($19.95)
- chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake – chocolate cheesecake loaded with peanut butter cookie dough and topped with chocolate
London -> Minnosoda - > San Francisco
Highlight
- Slokky called be at 7:20 am to tell me he lost his ring in Vancouver! He looked for 3 hours and still couldn’t find it.
- Left as planned, but there were trackworks at Farringdon, luckily the trackwork were finishing and I was able to catch the first train out and everything went smoothly.
- Relatively short queue at Gatwick.
- Just missed the rain again, but poor Iggy.
- The flight was not too bad, we taxied for a long time though…as expected nowadays.
- Talked to Abdul, who lives in Minnosoda, and he told me all about the city.
- The airport was pleasant, but Slokky plane was delayed, so I caught the BART 1st, which was quite efficient.
- It turned out that Slokky changed to an earlier flight and didn’t bother telling me, so he got a taxi himself and got there before me. That was inconsiderate as I had to walk deserted streets with my big backpack.
- We ordered room service for the first and probably the last time. It was very extravagant but wasn’t very good tasting.
Food
- NW snack:
- NW dinner:
- potato and cooked vegetables
- chicken, rice and broccoli
- chocolate cheesecake
- cheese and cracker
- tea
- white wine from Chile
- NW snack:
- orange juice
- ham and tomato roll
- chocolate ice cream
- Le meridian San Francisco Bay Chowder Cioppino style with sourdough croutons ($9)
