Over the Hill and Far Away……….

There was a cool and misty start to the day today. The cold, damp air seems to blow in off the sea and only affects the first mile or two inland. You can actually tell when you are close to the sea because the temperature drops significantly. Leaving Marina we went north to join Highway 101 which, in theory at least, was going to take us to the door of our hotel in San Francisco.

In contrast to the delights of Highway 1 yesterday, 101 was a busy motorway with all the allure of the M6 in rush hour. At times it got quite scary with traffic joining at speed from the right, cars and trucks passing on both the left and right and some alarming lane-swapping manoeuvres among the more impatient drivers. The scenery was pleasant with green, rolling hills but there was little chance to appreciate it as we were too busy watching the traffic and looking out for direction signs. However at least we can now say that we do in fact know the way to San Jose.

The traffic seemed to be heavy for a Sunday but we managed to get into the centre of San Francisco without too much trouble. Unfortunately we missed a sign that was partly obscured by a tree and found ourselves close to our destination but lost in a one-way street system. After asking directions, which failed to help at all, we found ourselves on the Highway 80 freeway heading out of San Francisco over the Bay Bridge and we eventually ended up in Oakland at the other side of the bay!

We couldn’t find any friendly Hells Angels to ask directions from, so after consulting our maps, we planned our route back and crossed the Bay Bridge again. This time we had to queue up to pay a $5 toll. The bridge is a double decker structure, several miles long, with the outgoing 5 lanes underneath and the incoming ones on top. Therefore the trip back was much more enjoyable, partly because we knew we were going in the right direction and also because we had a fine view of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city itself.

This time (thanks to Mark’s sense of direction and navigation skills) we managed to stay with the 101 and it did indeed lead us to our hotel.

The place we are staying is the cheapest available in the centre of the city and we are very close to Union Square. The room is very small by American standards but we also have an adjoining sitting room which has a settee and a desk. We fully expect to be attacked by bed bugs and cockroaches in the night but, that aside, it seems more than adequate. The front window looks out on a massage parlour and the back window is about a metre from a brick wall but at least it makes a change from all those mountains and deserts. A lot of the buildings here have those metal fire escapes on the outside that appear so often in American films and TV series. On the streets there is a striking contrast between the upmarket shops, restaurants and hotels in this area and the number of people who are out there either begging or seeming to have mental health problems.

We’ve had a bit of a mooch about and seen Union Square (where there was an art exhibition and some live music) and checked out a bit of China Town. After a couple of overpriced drinks in a couple of pretentious bars we ate at a little Japanese restaurant near the hotel where the food was good and the place was reassuringly packed with Japanese tourists.

Tomorrow there will be more mooching about. We don’t have a set agenda other than a visit to Alcatraz booked for Tuesday morning so we’ll just have a wander round and see what we find.

Under what proved to be the slightly erroneous impression that we only had a short ride today we set off just after 10 this morning. We had been woken somewhat earlier by a group of unfeasibly elderly chaps starting up their dune buggies. There seems to be some kind of event on at Santa Maria this weekend and there were large numbers of vintage and custom cars (with their vintage drivers) in the hotel car park and on the road outside.

After a short hop along the very busy Interstate, we got onto the legendary Highway 1 which follows the coastline all the way to today’s destination and to San Francisco beyond. It also passes near San Jose, so if we had got lost it might have afforded us the opportunity to ask someone “Do you know the way to San Jose….”

The scenery was green and hilly with lots of prosperous houses, golf clubs, shooting clubs, National Guard bases and colleges along the way. We caught our first sight of the Pacific at Pismo Beach. There was a very cool wind blowing off the sea and it got quite chilly at times with the temperature veering between the 80s inland and the low 60s by the sea. At one point, when we passed through the shelter of some hills it got hot so rapidly that we both actually checked to see if the bikes had caught fire!

We stopped briefly at Cayucos, a small beach resort which seemed eerily like Saltburn – even down to being uncomfortably chilly and having a pier. There were a number of families doggedly erecting gazebos and wind shelters on the beach so that it began to resemble a tent city. We walked on the beach and I felt the need to dip my hand in the Pacific Ocean (it was far too cold to think about swimming) and managed to get my feet soaked in the process!

A bit further on we came to an elephant seal viewpoint. Expecting perhaps to see a few heads bobbing out on the water, we stopped off to find the amazing sight of a beach crammed with enormous seals basking in the sun. Occasionally one would ponderously roll over, emitting a flatulent grunting sound. It was really rather reminiscent of our hotel room each morning.

After that we continued along Highway 1, a spectacular route, with the ocean to the left, the Coastal Range mountains to the right and a narrow winding road in between. It seemed to go on forever with a combination of straights and tight bends as it followed the coastline. There was only one low point, when a cop coming the other way seemed to notice that I, err, might have been slightly over the speed limit and immediately spun round to follow me. Fortunately I had spotted him in my mirror and he soon got bored with following me at a sedate 45mph. The road was absolute biker’s heaven and I felt a real sense of loss at the end of it that I might never get to ride such a perfect road again.

Still on Highway 1 we passed through Big Sur (something of a hippy mecca in the 70s), Carmel (where Clint Eastwood was mayor some time ago – so no speeding there) and finally, after about 180 miles, our destination of Marina. This was a lot further than predicted because we took the coast road rather than the more direct inland Interstate.

We have just eaten at a very good Italian restaurant just across the road from the hotel and will now be getting some rest before an early start for San Francisco tomorrow.