LL-L "Travels" 2008.02.03 (04) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  03 February 2008 - Volume 04
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From: Fred van Brederode <fredvanbrederode at home.nl>
Subject: San Francisco

The first week of March I'll  have a program in Santa Clara University.
Since I do not go there very regularly, I decided take the opportunity and
add some extra days.

For this reason I was checking out our Lowlands-L Travel site for "places to
…." in the San Francisco area. Santa Cruz with the Abbott family came up.
Unfortunately this is too far for where I am staying and for the little time
I've got.

I figured out the usual places to go, like a trip to Alcatraz, taking a ride
in a cable car as well as visiting a basket ball game in Oakland. Now I am
after the unusal things, only Lowland-L member would think of. Perhaps we
have Lowland friends in SF willing to have a coffee (or beer) with me. Might
be fun.

Can you help?

Groetjes Fred van Brederode
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Travels

Hi, Fred!  Good to hear from you.

You sent this to me personally with an OK to post it if I think that's all
right. It is.

At the moment I'm in Seattle, but there's a chance of me being down in Santa
Cruz and perhaps other parts in the first and/or second week of March. I'll
be in touch with you about that if it comes off.

Santa Clara University is a Jesuit university (with a very beautiful campus
based on an old Spanish mission) in Santa Clara, California. (
http://www.scu.edu/)

Santa Clara quite a way from San Francisco, and it isn't terribly far from
Santa Cruz and Monterey. It's sort of in between. It's is at the south end
of the San Francisco Bay and is right next to San José, the capital of
Silicon Valley. The two seem like one city.

By March the weather should be good enough to visit Santa Cruz or Monterey
for nice coastal scenery, sea life and surfer watching. Being right on the
shore, they tend to be cooler than San José and Santa Clara, as is San
Francisco. If you want to go to Santa Cruz, you can catch the Amtrak Highway
17 Express bus from downtown San José. The trip takes about one hour and
currently costs $4.50 one way. There's also the Line 55 Monterey - San Jose
Express. The trip is longer, but the fare seems to be similar ($9.00 for a
day pass.)

San Francisco and San José have nice Japanese parks, if you like that sort
of thing. There's an older Japanese community and a strong newer Vietnamese
community in San José, so you will encounter Buddhist temples.

In San José (almost a walk away from the university) I further recommend
these:

   - Some good restaurants are to be found at Santana Row.
   (Unfortunately, restaurants come and go.)
   http://www.santanarow.com/
   - Very close to it you'll find the touristy Winchester Mystery House
   (with quite a story behind it):
   http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

I think we have several Lowlanders in the general area.

In any case, I hope you'll have a great time.

A word of warning: San Francisco is not terrible large in area and you might
think you can walk from place A to place B when it turns out to be much
farther than the map suggests. This is because the city is very hilly, and
some of the slopes are very steep indeed. I, who loves walking, have fallen
into that trap several times. There are wonderful walking tours in that city
(and printed guides for them), but you've got to be fit to take some of the
longer ones. In fact, you've got to be a mountain goat to live there, and
one with a high income at that.

As far as packing is concerned, do the layering thing rather than taking big
and bulky stuff. Temperatures tend to vary a lot, especially at that time of
year, in terms of both place and time of day. In terms of climate, it's
"weird" in that warm climate plants grow there (e.g. lemons and oranges,
bougainvilleas and all sorts of palms) but you can also grow cold climate
vegetables such as apples, potatoes and ... dare I say it? ... rutabagas.

Groetjes back,
Reinhard/Ron
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