San Francisco and Monterey

From one extreme to another. We arrived at our lovely boutique hotel in San Francisco looking slightly worse for wear after our hike through the woods. The ground in the forest had been very sandy and it had kicked up so all our clothes had a thin layer of greying sand. Thankfully a mere twenty minutes after arriving we had spruced ourselves up enough to make our way down to the dining room where there was a complimentary cheese and wine evening.

The hotel was the first this holiday to acknowledge the fact that we are on our honeymoon. They had provided us with a chilled bottle of some sparkling wine from a local vineyard, which was really delicious. Before we popped it open though we went out to explore a bit of the city.

We knew San Francisco was hilly but the shots of the city in films do not prepare you for just how steep the hills are, and there are so many. It was quite fun negotiating our way down to the bay. We had a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun was going down as we made our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Attempting to get back to the hotel though was very tiring, and the temperature had dropped as 

the sun went down. We gave in to the inevitable and hailed a taxi to help us on our way.

The following morning we woke up to the infamous San Francisco fog. The hotel provided a courtesy car to take us in to Union Square in the heart of the city. We stumbled upon a Macy’s and couldn’t resist a look. I managed to get a dress that had been discounted three times in the sale. Not a bad find at all.

We bought a ticket for the trams and spent a long time waiting for one to arrive that had enough space on it for us to hop on. Not a very efficient mode of transport. We realised these must only be used by tourists. 

We took the tram as far as Lombard street (apparently a very famous street which I have never heard of, but which was very picturesque). The street is so steep it has a series of hairpins bends built in to it, all surrounded by flower beds. I wouldn’t fancy driving down it.

We just had time for another stroll down the further end of Fisherman’s wharf before racing back to our hotel before check out time. As we had left it quite late we got another taxi and had a great driver who pulled over to show us the house where Mrs Doubtfire was filmed, as we drove past it. The front doorstep of this house was again covered in floral tributes for Robin Williams.

We then began our next part of the road trip with a comparatively short drive down to Montery Bay, our home for the night.

Once at Montery Bay we got back in the car (it felt like we never left it at times!) so we could complete the scenic Seventeen Mile Drive round Pebble Beach Golf Course. We were presented with a map on our way in with a list of twenty two places of interest on the drive, the most iconic being the Lone Cypress tree, which sits on a rock just off the coast, and it the symbol of Pebble Beach. 

In the evening we strolled down towards the pier, indulged in some fish and chips from one of the many, many fish restaurants, and then came across a small shop/bar offering wine tastings from a local vineyard.

We were amongst only six customers in the bar (and later discovered that two were friends with the owner). The girl running the bar was very friendly and explained a lot about the wines on the tasting menus. We both tried a different menu so we could sample as many as possible. The vineyard owner was there for a while as well and told us how he had got started. The chardonnay may have been the nicest wine we had ever tasted. We were very disappointed that the shipping they offer is only within the United States. Chatting to the others in the bar it turns out that one of the friends used to live in London, and knew Camden very well indeed. We made him promise to bring a bottle of the Chardonnay over if he’s ever visiting again!