Where In The World Wednesday: San Francisco

The ever fabulous Classy in Philadelphia is currently on a cruise in the Caribbean (lucky thing!)....but her 'Where In The World Wednesday' feature is still running while she's away. If you'd like to take part too, all you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.

Earlier this week I showed you a photo that I took of the 25 de Abril Bridge in Lisbon....it bears a striking resemblance to the famous Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco...today's destination! This amazing city was the last stop on our 2008 road trip through western USA that I've already written about HERE and HERE.

On the Golden Gate Bridge

I loved San Francisco....the beautiful Bay setting, the hilly streets, and the relaxed, arty vibe of the city reminded me strongly of Cape Town. We had perfect autumn weather the three days we were there...not a cloud in the sky, no sign of the famous Bay fog and barely a breeze.  Our stay coincided with Columbus Day weekend and we watched the parade and Blue Angels' aerobatics display from our hotel, just off Fisherman's Wharf...

Columbus Day Parade

Blue Angels' aerobatics display seen from Hyde Street Pier

We took an evening tour of the former state penitentiary, Alcatraz Island...really spooky by night, but worth the spine-tingling moments in the prison block just for the views from the boat on the way over of the sun setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge, and the city scape by night seen from "The Rock".

Truely Golden Gate

"The Rock"

Cell block

Prison cell

While we were on Alcatraz, a fire broke out on neighbouring Angel Island, and we watched while firefighting helicopters tried to dampen the blaze. Apparently a camp fire had gotten out of hand. The next morning we could see the island still smouldering from our hotel room.

We spent the day exploring Chinatown and Little Italy by tram and on foot....

Tram stop in Chinatown

Chinatown

North Beach

Steep roads

There was just time for a quick trip to strain our necks looking up at the magnificent redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) in the Muir Woods....

If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet some gentle people there

Scott McKenzie - San Francisco

The Week That Was....

Well, I DID make it to Lisbon in the end...and back again - just in the nick of time! UK airports are gradually closing today as yet again the volcanic ash cloud shifts our way. OK, Ash Cloud....do your worst for the next three weeks or so but just sod the hell off next month when I want to fly to Canada!

My early flight out of London Luton was delayed for two hours last Tuesday morning while air traffic control cleverly worked out how we could fly around the ash cloud. Sitting waiting in the airport lounge, drinking bottomless cups of tea and watching SkyNews on a continuous loop of just two stories....the aftermath of the UK election and the RyanAir plane that had to make an emergency landing at Stansted Airport (!)... is possibly not the wisest move for someone with a small bladder, who's also terrified of flying and of using the toilet on an aeroplane (fear of hitting turbulence mid-stream, you pee see).

Finally, I made it through Lisbon airport by lunchtime...hopped into a taxi driven by a wannabe F1 race driver and got to my hotel in record time. Dumping my bags, I headed straight out again to find something to eat, ending up at a cafe/patisserie type place up the road from the hotel. The owner quickly realised I don't know a word of Portuguese and pointed to the menu saying, "Meat, Fish, Omelette"....I opted for the "omelette", which turned out to be two fried eggs, bacon, chips and pickled cauliflower and carrots all piled up on a plate. Very tasty, all the same.

There was just time for a quick stroll to get my bearings before the conference welcome reception. The city was crawling with police as the pope had just arrived. I caught the tail end of a procession of devotees....

And then the man himself in his popemobile....

Most of the week was taken up by lectures, workshops and hobnobbing networking with some interesting characters from both rival companies and potential clients. I did get a couple of free hours one afternoon and decided to take an open-top bus tour of Lisbon. My photos are pretty rubbish on the whole....my camera has anti-shake built in but is not equipped to cope with a bus on high speed vibrate. Here are a few shots to give you an idea - click on the pictures to enlarge or the links to read more.

Luís de Camões Square

Jerónimos Monastery

Pastel de Belém (custard tarts) at the famous Casa Pastéis de Belém, 160 year old pastry shop

The 25 de Abril Bridge, built by the same company (American Bridge Company) that constructed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate)

Torre de Belém at dusk

Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries)

Map of Portuguese exploration on pavement below the Monument

Stepping back to my roots

After a delayed return flight, I finally arrived back in London in the early hours of Saturday morning, landing in a country with a new Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, and a new PM in Number 10.

Out with the Old....

In with the New....

Now I need to catch up on all your posts from the past week!

In Limbo

Chimp pic found HERE

I seem to have spent the past weekend hanging around, just wondering, watching and waiting...

Wondering what will be the outcome of the UK's hung parliament - with no one party taking the majority of seats, what will happen next? A LibDem - Tory coalition (they're unlikely bedfellows) or a LibDem - Labour - Minority Parties alliance (on paper more likely but possibly not the best outcome for anyone wanting significant change, and likely to hit funding for England, of all the nations, hardest)? Or possibly an attempt by the Tories to rule without a majority, resulting in power breakdown and another election likely within a year?

This sudden obsession with politics means I spent the most part of the weekend glued to 24-hour news channels, desperate for any bit of information....why did I bother when in reality what's going on behind closed doors is probably so far removed from what's being reported? Still, the need to keep watching could not be stifled by the regurgitation of news-that's-not-really news-just-replays...and not helped by a wet and cold weekend, with not much to tempt me out and away from the telly.

And so I waited. Waited on the political game to play out....and watched helplessly while that infernal Icelandic volcano decided to spew more ash our way and put paid to my travel plans, yet again! I'm due to fly to Portugal early tomorrow for a jolly very important and serious medical writers' conference with five of my colleagues...but, suprise!suprise! ....good old Eyjafjallajökull has started up again, this time disrupting Transatlantic flights (this does not bode well for my Canadian trip next month!) and shutting down southern European airspace.

Up until this morning, Lisbon airport was closed for business....it seems to have just re-opened, but for how long? And if we do make it to the Iberian Peninsula, will we ever get back home again? I don't fancy an epic train trip through Spain to France to get a ferry back to Dover. More importantly, given my serious and uncontrollable  fear of flying, I'm not 100% comfortable with the thought of flying through any ash, dense or not....and there will still be some lurking in the skies above! 

Who knows what the week will bring....

Which One Would You Choose?

Today is a Very Important Day in the UK....it's the General Election! We get to choose which of these three chaps' parties will be in charge.....

David Cameron (Conservatives), Nick Clegg (Lib Dems) and Gordan Brown (Labour - currently PM)
aka

The Devils You Don't Yet Know or the Devil You Do?
or maybe...
Speak No Evil, Smell No Evil, Think No Evil?

I'd rather be voting for another 'David'....the Prime Minister played by Hugh Grant in "Love Actually". At least he knows all the right moves to get a party started.....

Still, at least we do get a choice here. If my life had continued on another path in another county, come election day I'd be faced with this unpalatable option....

Where In The World Wednesday: Las Vegas

Believe it or not, it's Wednesday again and time for Classy in Philadelphia's feature...Where In The World Wednesday. If you'd like to take part too, all you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.

Today, I'm heading for the bright lights of Las Vegas. I'd always wanted to see the dazzling array of neon in Sin City, so I was really excited when our road trip through the Western USA took us there for two nights, back in October 2008.

Fremont Street Experience

The Flamingo

Luxor

The Strip

The Stratosphere

We stayed in the Stratosphere hotel, which is a little bit out of the way at the far end of The Strip. We quickly learnt that we couldn't just walk from one end of The Strip to the other. All the hotels are HUGE, as are their impressive shopping malls...making the distances between hotels overwhelming. I wish we could have stayed at the Bellagio (of "Ocean's Eleven" fame) ....

Fountain show in front of the Bellagio

Harvest display in the Bellagio Flower Court

We also quickly learnt that Las Vegas is geared to part you from your money! Every hotel has a casino....easy to get into, but try getting out again in a hurry....it's a maze of neverending slot machine and gambling tables. We did have a brief gamble, setting $10 as our budget (yeah, last of the big spenders!) and went $16 up on a slot machine, then lost it all within a few minutes. And that was the end of that....

The Venetian

The Venetian

New York! New York!

I think everyone should try and see Las Vegas once in their lifetime, but to be honest, for me that once was enough. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to see and do there, apart from the obvious gambling...the shopping malls are spectacular, the choice of shows unbelievable and the lights are truly amazing to behold.....but I was exhausted by the sensory overload and nervous energy of Sin City, and frankly quite relieved to be moving on to the green tranquility of Yosemite.

Going to the chapel....

A Welsh Weekend

Monument to Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan at Llandovery
Read more about him HERE

Years ago I watched a film with the longwinded title "An Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain"...a sweet but slightly boring tale set in 1917, about two English cartographers (the pompous Garrad and his junior, Anson) who arrive at the fictional Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw ("Rough Fountain" in Welsh) to measure its "mountain" – only to cause outrage when they conclude that it is only a hill because it is slightly short of the required 1000 feet. The villagers conspire with Anson (played by Hugh Grant) to delay the cartographers' departure while they build an earth cairn on top of the hill to make it high enough to be considered a mountain.

This film was forefront in my mind this past long weekend in Carmarthenshire, where, without wanting to make a mountain out of a molehole, I was slightly disappointed to see what in my book would be hailed as hills, but are most certainly mountains to the fiercely proud Welsh. Very beautiful, nonetheless!

It was a lovely, relaxing weekend of long walks and overeating. The weather was better than we'd hoped for...it did rain (a lot!) but somehow we managed to avoid the odd deluge and hail storm with impeccable timing and even enjoyed a few hours' sunshine. Our base was a cosy cottage with log stove and beamed ceilings, the perfect place to return after some pretty strenuous hiking.

We saw ruined castles, sheep, wild ponies, sheep, goats, sheep, a cave, forests, sheep, rivers and waterfalls, sheep and lovely stone churches and cottages (did I mention we saw some sheep?). I felt at one with nature...and indeed when nature called....ladies you will be thrilled to learn....I put my hot pink She Wee to some field tests. I can report it works a treat (or should that be trickle?).

A selection of photos from the weekend (click on any to enlarge)....

Carreg Cennen Castle

Carreg Cennen Castle

Lambs

Goat and kids

Wild ponies

Foal

Usk Reservoir

Stream

Cave

Looking down to Myddfai village

Myddfai parish church (origins 14th century)

Sheep

More sheep

Cloudy evening

A different type of mountain...

Hope your weekends were as good!