Day 200 - 207, Around San Francisco

Day 200, 30 km

I rested in the morning in Stu's beautiful and big house in Fairfield. then I decided to go downtown and look at the town. I had a good tailwind and it was downhill so I made the seven miles in 13 minutes. Without my luggage it felt like flying!
Fairfield was a nice little town.

Day 201, 45 km

Although the new battery for my laptop, which I had ordered to Stu's address, had not come yet, I decided to go downtown San Francisco. First I rode on my bicycle about 30 km to Valleio.

 From the last hill I had a beautiful view of San Francisco bay.
In Vallejo I found the ferry which was going directly to downtown SF.

 It was a very fast boat, about 38 kn!

 We saw many beautiful bridges along the route.

 Here you see the famous Golden Gate bridge.

San Francisco is a very small city, not allowed to grow because it is on a peninsula.

 This is the Ferry building:

 The streets downtown are narrow and busy.

 There are the many cable cars going up the steep hills.

 They are so famous that even some buses look like them:

Some parts of SF were not destroyed of the fires after the earthquake 1906, so they still have their small Victorian houses.

 One of the most famous landmarks certainly is the Golden Gate bridge which is situated on the narrow entrance over the San Francisco bay. It is so narrow that many sailing ship exploring the coast of Western America did not discover it.

 I visited Cyndi, a warmshower member living very central in SF. Her grandparents came from Sweden and she is planning to go on a bike tour there. I hope she will visit me!

Day 202, 40 km

I spent the day exploring SF. I really liked the botanical garden.

 On the way to the Waldorf school I passed these little houses,

 The waldorf-high-school did not look like other waldorf schools. It was built in a former office building.

 Since it was the last day before Christmas the students were invited for a Christmas meal.

 They invited me also for a good lunch and I had a good talk with many teachers.

 On the way back to town I went up on Twin Peaks, famous for its breathtaking view.
 Here you see the center of SF.

 
And ere you see SF bay. I decided to o to the port and look at the ships and boats. There was a giant Yacht harbor.

 I biked along the coast to the north side. This is the beach near Fishermans Wharf.

In the evening Cindy invited me to join her to a dinner at a friends house. Her friend Fred recently had lost his wife. He lived in a big house and he was happy that Cindy and her friends came with a dinner to him. But the house was very cold - obviously because Fred thought he could not afford to heat it since he had to pay the rent alone. I never had eaten dinner in a so cold house before!

Day 203, 10 km

It was a rainy day again. Before noon I wrote mails to some organic farms which could take woofers in January. Then I went to the Conservatory of flowers in the Golden Gate Park. 

 It was really nice to be inside this giant green house while it was raining outside.
Then I went to a big sport shop and bought some liquid to make my rainclothes more waterproof.
On the way home to Cindy I saw this Volvo. (You can see on the number plate that the owner seems to know a little Swedish...)

 In the evening Stu called me from fairfield and told me that my Battery finally had arrived.

Day 204, 70 km

Again a rainy day. I left Cyndi's house in the morning and followed her to the Farmers Market

 Cyndi does not own a car and bikes every day.

 The Farmers market was behind the Ferry Building. Before the first ferry went to Vallejo I had time to explore all the small shops inside the building.

 Then I took the ferry to Vallejo and rode to Fairfield. There I met Stu who gave me the battery.
When I came to Cyndis house in the evening, she was cooking nettle soup. For me it seemed strange that you could find fresh nettles at christmas, but since it is very dry in California in summer time they do grow in winter time!

Day 205, 85 km

It was raining again. Still I packed my panniers and said good bye to Cyndi. I went to a American Methodist church to visit a Mass.

Everybody beside me were black in the church and it was nice to hear them singing gospel songs.

At 1:00 pm I was ready do leave SF, but it seemed as if it wanted to hold me back. First I got a flat tire and a spoke broke. It was raining a lot and not so easy to find a shelter where i could mend my rear wheel. The storm was increasing at the coast and the wind was coming from south so it was very difficult to ride. In the evening I went to a McDonalds in Half Moon Bay. There i met another touring bicyclist! His name was Mark and he had come all the way from Vancouver. Actually he was heading to the very same place, to a warmshower host in Monterey who had invited him and me! We also found out that we at several places had visited the very same hosts along the route. It was more than a days ride to Monterey so we decided to ride some more miles in the evening, although it already was seven o'clock and dark outside. 

But now it was not raining any more a the wind suddenly came from north. 

Mark told me that he several times during the day had tried to leave McDonalds but because of the storm he had turned around after some miles. Now we easily rode about 20 miles in the dark. Then we slept in my tent close to the beach.

 This day I accidently lost my camera in a pond of water. So I took not so many pictures...

Day 206, 120 km

My camera still did not work, so I was happy that I had kept my old one as a spare camera.
Mark, who also had studied biology, told me that there was a place not far away where it was possible to see Elephant Seals (which were not at all as common as Sea Lions).
Actually we found out that the sanctuary was open for visitors although it was Christmas eve. I thought that watching Elephant seals is not a thing you do every Christmas so it could be a good Idea to do it. although the guided visit would take four hours and we planned to go all the way to Monterey.

 It was a wonderful sunny day and we had a enthusiastic guide. We came very close to the giant animals. Unfortunately my old camera had no zoom.

 After the guiding we ate lunch in the sun. Then we biked south towards Monterey.

We had a good wind from behind so we went fast. Here we are at the beach in Santa Cruz. 

We arrived in Monterey at 8:30 and had a nice evening together with our warmshower host.

Day 207, 50 km

I woke up with a headache and knew it would become a hard day. Also the weather forecast told me that there would come some rain and a headwind in the afternoon. Still I decided to leave Monterey together with Mark. First we rode along the coast through the center. We saw a group of Sea Lions in the port. They were lying on a float and made strange barking noises.

 Unfrortunately the famous Aquarium was closed because it was Christmas day. Instead we decided to take a Christmas-swim at the beach. There were many surfers but all had neoprene suits because the water was only 10 degrees celsius (50 degrees farenheit). But it was refreshing!

 Still my headache did not get better and the steep hills made it even worse. I told mark that he should not wait for me so we said good bye to each other. I spent many hours of the day resting along the scenic coastal route.

 There were many beautiful bridges I passed. But the headwind was becoming stronger and stronger.

The road was so exposed to the storm that it sometimes was (almost) impossible to continue. It felt as if the wind, which suddenly could change direction, could blow me off the road! In the evening it also begun to rain a lot. I was happy to find a restaurant in Big Sur where i could stay some hours and write this blog. At the restaurant I met a group of five young Swedes who were exploring western USA by rental car. They were going to Las Vegas to see Grand Canyon from a helicopter. They invited me for a beer and it was nice to speak Swedish with them!