Advertisement
Published: September 29th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Rucksack City Limits
'Bryce, stop complaining it's too dark in there!' It's about 21:30 hrs here and Steve is doing serious zzzed's after driving from SF airport. We're in a VERY smelly motel room in Monterey, just along the coast down from SF (when I say just, I mean about 100 miles away... but that's peanuts-driving in America (don't tell Steve I said that). I've opened all the windows but nothing's going to get rid of this 20-year-old-carpet smell...
This morning we were up again early doors and we were pleasantly surprised to see several cafe's open along Chestnut Street, so we grabbed a bite to eat to start the day. Across the road from the cafe, in 'Crunch Fitness', mad people were pounding away on running machines way before any signs of daybreak... The Californian quest for everlasting health and vitality? Sod that...
We'd reserved a hire car online yesterday, so we had to make our way over to SF International Airport for 15:00 hrs to pick the car up (the city rental branches told us we'd have to wait at least 3 days to get a one-way rental from downtown; they seem to prefer to keep their vehicles in the district for some reason). We got the No.
A Wheelie Nice Suitcase
The last-minute backpack replacement - thank god for wheelie cases! 30 Trolley Bus from Chestnut Street right into downtown SF and it only cost us $1.50 each. From there we got on the BART train to SFIA for $5.15 each; a whole lot cheaper than the $45 taxi ride we took from the airport to our hotel when we arrived!
After a wander around the airport, we got the free Air Train to the Rental Car Centre to pick up our tuk-tuk; actually it's a Dodge Caliber we ended up with, costing us about $450 for 6 days, after all taxes/ waivers/ surcharges/ supplements and think-of-a-number-and-double-it-charges were slapped on top. 'We recommend you take the Collision Damage, Hurricane, Earthquake and Breathing on the Vehicle Waiver, just in case Sir'. However, it's a bit more realistic than the $2,500, before add-on's, they were quoting for the Porsche!
So, we set off on the Freeway from SFIA and managed to get onto the Hwy 1 coast road after only a couple of my map-misreading detours. Good job Steve's so great at everything init, including driving on the opposite side of the road...
We'd planned to stop at Santa Cruz but decided to venture on a bit further to Monterey
Grrrreat!
'Look, it's got cruise control and everthing!' where we found a Tourist Information Centre and got directions to the main drag where the motels are. Some of these motels have got serious refurbishment needs, but I suppose they're relatively cheap and a it's somewhere to put your head down... And given that we've got 9 months of paying for accommodation of some shape or form, we ought to be quite frugal. Having said that, this room cost us $140 for the night (about £70) but we were running out of options on a Friday evening... However, we could have stayed at Bed Bug Inn across the road for $60... hmm.
Monterey seems like a nice place. We're planning to have a look around Carmel town tomorrow, and perhaps drive around the Monterey peninsular (the 17-Mile Drive scenic tour) and look for the Lone Cypress, 'one of California's best-known landmarks' (I'll say 'Hi' from you, Carol!)....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.1046s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb