I left San Francisco more than one week ago and I already miss Bernd like hell! The time in the USA was really nice but has gone by much too fast. We visited a lot of nice places, not only the Fisherman’s Wharf, China Town, Union Square, Coit Tower and Twin Peaks in San Francisco, but also some really nice places in the country side. We also went for some short hikes during my time in California. I would recommend the bear valley trail at the Point Reyes National Seashore, which is a national park in the north of San Francisco. It is next to the San Andreas fault and there you can also walk the “legendary” Earth quake trail. =) The bear valley trail starts at the seashore information centre in bear valley and leads to the Archers Rock at the west coast. The roundtrip is a little bit more then 8 miles, but doesn’t have big differences in elevation. We had a nice time there and saw a lot of deer, which was not shy at all. The best was the view from Archers Rock at the coast. I am normally not a hiking person, but I really liked this hike even we didn’t have a lot of food and we were nearly starving in the end. However, we had some hot tea and so we survived the trip without any irreparable damages. ;)
In the first week, Bernd rent a car that was a really good idea, since a car is really convenient and for some things essential in the USA, such as groceries shopping. Compared with the European definition of distance, everything is really far a way from each other and it just takes a lot of time to come from place A to place B. I think I will get used to it after some time.
For New Years Eve, we went to San Francisco with some friends. For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant and discovered China Town for a second time. It is really informative if you go with Chinese people there, really great. Then we had some drinks in the Jungle Bar close to the legendary Pier 39, where you can see the seals. From the Pier, we watched the fireworks. It was really a nice night and we had a lot of fun.
My conclusions of the trip: American people always smile back, Dim Sum (the Chinese answer of Spanish Tapas) is more than delicious and Bernd is simple gorgeous. Thank you very much for this amazing time, your great cooking and your patience, help and encouragement. =)
