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Beyond the quirkiness of San Francesco and the epic landscape of Yosemite, Maria Chiara and I had a few days to experience other parts of Northern California: four world famous wine regions and a drive down California's famous Pacific Coast, along the appropriately named "Highway One".
America is brilliant - where even driving on the motorway is a cultural experience. We drove south through Silicon Valley towards San Jose, all part of the vast conurbation of the Bay area, the freeway was six lanes wide at times and we were forever passing through spaghetti junctions. Cool!!!
Eventually we left the city behind, drove over a mountain, through a forest and hit the coast at Santa Cruz. This beach town is a complete antidote to Riviera-style pretentiousness. With the Pacific Ocean and towering palm trees on one hand, and taco joints on the other, it's a bit gritty, a bit hippy and particularly stoner. We stayed long enough to catch some rays (bearing in mind it was only March it was pleasantly warm) and at a fairground next to the beach we caught a ride on one of the oldest rollercoasters in the world.
In socio-economic terms we had
rather contrasting experience when we pressed on southwards to the other side of Monterey Bay to Carmel-by-the-Sea, which is exactly as upmarket as the name would imply. Here there are no chain stores, no malls, shops tend to preface their name with "Ye Olde".
Further South still things started to get exciting - we were in Big Sur. I've wanted to visit here since reading the eponymous book by Jack Kerouac. A word of advice: if you are doing this coast, do it heading South. Why? So that you are on the ocean side! Thank God we did because the coast was one epic vista after another: massive cliffs, huge bridges, wild and empty beaches. Big Sur is a small and slightly indeterminate area but the beautiful, largely unspoilt coastline continues on much further south. We had a drink at a place called Nepenthe that very nicely incapsulated the tone of this coast: relaxed but sophisticated, liberal but affluent. It was built by an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright. We found a spot with a view, nestled amongst crowds of Californians vigorously swirling glasses of cabernet, and enjoyed a perfect Pacific sunset.
In the morning we decided against
Hearst Castle - an outrageous palace built on a hill by a Hollywood mogul straight out of Citizen Kane - and spent 40 minutes instead watching a very large pod of seals. These guys were fascinating. There were some very cute ones and some seriously nasty looking ones too - one you certainly would not want to see walking towards you in a dark alleyway. Admittedly they walk slowly and awkwardly so you could almost certainly run away, but you get my point.
We turned inland and visited Paso Robles wine country. We had time to visit two vineyards and the one that made the biggest impression was Tobin James. We tried the entire range of wines free of charge (I was spitting!) with names such as Rock'n'Roll Syrah, Notorious Cabernet Sauvignon and Fatboy Zinfandel. All Belgravian snobbery was left far behind in a whirlwind of strange brand names, alcoholic fruit-bombs and good cheer.
On the subject of wineries, we went on a day trip taking in the three main wine regions north of San Francisco: Carneros, Napa and Sonoma. We were in a party of four with Amy (a friend of MC's who has moved to San
Francisco - well played) and Kira, her friend. Kira added considerable credibility to our tour party: not only is actually American but she is from Sonoma Valley!
Considering we stayed there only briefly I will keep my descriptions brief too. One word per region should suffice: Carneros was "classy", Napa was "slick" and Sonoma was "cruisy". Visiting wineries around the world can be a wildly varying experience: from the aristocratic opulence of Champagne and Bordeaux to parts of New Zealand where you'll be served wine in a corrugated iron shed by a bloke called Geoff. In Napa wine tourism is big business: statement architecture, huge staffs, bars, catering, and crowds of people. In my capacity as a wine merchant, I managed to make myself useful by name-dropping us a couple of freebies and discounts. A huge thanks to Kira and Amy for taking us out on this adventure.
On our way back to San Francisco we visited a hill point with surely the best view of Golden Gate Bridge. IN the evening light we had the San Francisco skyline to one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. I can see why settlers risked various forms of
death to traipse west across America to get to California. To borrow a well-worn tourist cliché: for those who finally got there it really was "worth the effort"!
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