mybigadventures.com

It's official. We're all booked up for a big Japanese adventure. Two more weeks of school and then we're off, so keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks for all the updates and photo's. We're visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Osaka and Hakone. If you have any tips for must see sights or other recommendations just put a comment in below.

Got up a bit late, after our late-night pizza! I went down Starbucks to get tea and, despite having to relay my order several times to different people, managed to get two teas and chocolatines. They still seem incapable of leaving any room for milk, despite being asked!

Got all of our stuff packed up, and toddled down to check out. Had a two dollar bill for the local phone calls (the pizza) - last of the big spenders! Made our way down to the car park to retrieve the hire car - a fairly easy-going walk downhill from Van Ness Avenue to O’Farrell. A friendly parking attendant helped us out, with the pay machine and indicated where the lifts were, and we were away! As we drove out of San Francisco, we happened to pass the car rental offices and, low and behold - a massive queue. No surprise there really! Poor things.

Left San Francisco via the Bay Bridge, which has some intermittent views, but the walls were too high to see over most of the time. The route east was painless and we reached Berkeley easily. Used the SatNav to locate some parking, but found one on our own, just opposite the US Post Office. It was $2.50 for the first two hours, which seems reasonable. Interestingly, there was the ongoing protest outside the post office, to say no to the privatisation of the post office. Quite interesting, given the same question being raised back home. It turns out that the building is being sold, rather than the actual service, but people want to preserve the historic building.

We began to have a little wander, nipping into the post office to buy some stamps. We then found the high street, almost immediately stopping to buy an ice cream from Papa John’s Ice-Creams - we thought we’d start lunch with dessert. Tempted by the promise of a scoop for a dollar, we both had one! Ben had choc’ chip and chocolate, in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone and I had avocado and ube (sweet potato and yam apparently) in a small cone - I’ll be honest; I picked mine for the colours! As the ice cream dripped down our hands, we pottered on. Went in a couple of bookshops, looking for an American Atlas and eventually happened upon a deli, where we bought some huge sandwiches - roast chicken and cheese, which we kept to eat a bit later.

Having returned to the car, we drove out of Berkeley, passing through the University. We were trying to find a renowned beauty spot called Grizzly Peak, but it turned out to be elusive. We drove around for at least an hour, suffering from the distinct lack of British brown signposts to send us in the right direction. Eventually, happened upon Lakeview car park. Sounded promising… But not a real view of the lake, more of a car park. Sat and ate our sandwiches in view of a very symmetrical portaloo! The sandwiches were very nice, however!

Drove on, seeing some spectacular scenery. Ironically, all the places you can stop along the way have views of nothing but trees, whereas you can only drive past the fantastic panoramas! They need a bit of National Trust input!

Travelled on towards Yosemite and our motel in Mariposa. As we went, we couldn’t help but stop along one of the straight, seemingly never-ending roads, with barely any cars. There was nothing to see for miles, apart from pistachio trees and wheat. Stood in the road for photos! The whole journey didn’t take as long as we might have expected and we arrived in Mariposa. Check-in was easy and we had ourselves a room with two queen beds - room for a party! Had a little sloth around and then headed to the Miner’s Inn restaurant. An hour later and we were stuffed. We shared potato skins as a starter, although there were four, which was quite vast, and then I had meatloaf and Ben had southern fried chicken. We were baffled as to why the main courses came with either soup or salad and opted for salad, as a lighter choice! Nevertheless, the portions were massive and we didn’t eat it all. Good value at $45, but huge! How do American people manage this?

It was another early start this morning for our train to Quebec. We set alarms and were packed up and checking out just after 8 ready for 9.06 train. The train station was only a short walk from the hotel so we arrived in good time, aiming to get some breakfast at Starbucks. Alas, when we arrived Starbucks was closed, so we carried on into the station to see what else was inside. There was a McDonalds but the queue was massive so we decided we would get something on the train again and before long we were queued up and climbing aboard. The journey went pretty quickly, it wasn't so far this time taking just over 3 hours and we arrived in Quebec City just after midday. 

It took about 15 minutes to walk from the station to the hotel and we found it fairly easily. We were too early to check-in so we left our luggage at the hotel and went for a wander. The hotel is set outside the walls of the citadelle and so we spent some time walking up hill further into the old town. We stopped in McDonalds for some lunch and wandered a bit further, calling in at a phamacy to buy some more drugs (we're both still a bit ill). We decided to head back to the hotel for check-in just after 3 and to take a break before tea.

We headed out to Matto for tea, which is an Italian restaurant in a nearby hotel. It was pretty busy so we ended up sitting at the bar. I had spaghetti carbonara whilst Dani had meatballs, all very tasty. Feeling pretty tired we had a fairly early night, ready to spend a bit more time exploring tomorrow.