San Francisco

My time in Melbourne was mostly about catching up with Matt and Lotte and Anouk. And about eating cake at Brunettis :) Anouk just turned two in August and speaks dutch and english, both quite advanced for her age. She mixes them all the time, which is good for your puzzle mind :) Her favourite sentence: "Mammi got a baby in het tommy... it is growing bigger and bigger.." just in case you were wondering. I also attended two afternoons in the Royal childrens, with one of my favourite infectious diseases doctors. And I visited Heather and Dave and their two kids Olliver and Charlie. I know them from my time working in Malawi, and they live in the most beautiful place in Ballaret. The have an amazing house on top of a hill with 12 acres of ground around it, and a superb view :) I played footy with Olliver, which you can basically win by throwing your partner on the ground, not too hard with a 5 year old ;) But of course I let him win, which he found quite normal as well, because we don't play footie in the Netherlands but only soccer, so if I wanted to play that now, we could do that for a bit.... untill I scored to goals, then it was back into footie ;) 

But on Thursday it was time to leave.... a long, long day.... First a one hour flight to Sydney, a two hour wait and then a 13 hour flight to San Francisco, to arrive at 11.00 am the same day.....I went to the hostel that was very basic but really friendly. After a power nap I wandered off to the harbour to eat a chowder in a sourdough bowl, the dish of SF (and Boston I think ;) After walking around a bit more, the energy was all gone, so I had a nice 12 hour sleep :)

The following day I decided to get up against my will and go on a bike tour. I took the famous tram to get to the harbour. These trams are more than a 100 years old and still operate in the same way: The driver needs to get of the tram to change the tracks. People are hanging out of the tram while it goes up and down the steep hills of San Francisco... it cannot get any more touristy than that ;) Or it must be riding a bike over the golden gate bridge :) That was next on the list.... when I had a very good view over the Golden Gate bridge, I asked a fellow cyclist to take a picture of me... we got to talk a bit and decided to cycle the day together. Simon from Switzerland was quite good company. We cycled over the bridge, which was very bussy with bikes but super pretty. 

Then among the coast into Sausalito to have lunch, where once again I was amazed by the unhealthy big portions... I ordered an eggplant sandwich as I though it to be one of the healthier options, but it was a lot of deepfried aubergine with lots of cheese on fried bread with chips....at least enough calories to keep you going for a bit :) Next we cycled to Old Mill Park, full of coastal red woods and some of the tallest trees in the world. 

There were quite a few steep climbs in there, especially because we took a few unplanned detours. I had the scare of my life going downhill sooo steep that even with full brakes on we still went fast, while the road ended on a bussy highway.... but I stopped in time. Old Mill Park was really beautiful, with the tall red trees. We made a small walk to the waterfall, that after a year without rain was not much of waterfall anymore, but it was still pretty, and the smell of the wood amazing. The rest of the bike ride was along pretty fishermans villages and among the coast untill we finally reached Tiburon, in total a 40-50 km ride. We had lovely fish tacos before we took the 20.00 ferry back. This was by far the best way to get over a jetlag quickly! A true recommendation for anyone who will vist SF.