06.08. Highway 1 and drive to San Francisco

It's still windy and foggy, but we'll pay the beach another visit, who knows when we'll be back to the Pacific.

By the way, we're already clogging the toilet for the second time, Felix still hasn't learned that there's a reason why the toilet paper here is only single-ply.

Then we head south, since we haven't explored this side of Highway 1 yet. We drive through persistent fog until we reach the Bixby Bridge with some stops along the way. The road along the coast is very impressive, we could take a photo stop at almost every turn. We watch some daredevils cliff jumping into the freezing water... but due to time constraints, we soon turn back and continue on to Carmel-by-the-sea to drive the touristy 17-mile drive there. We pay $11.75 admission and follow the signs along with some other rental cars. It's quite nice, nice view of the still foggy coast and often no opportunity to stop at the various viewpoints due to lack of parking spaces. Nevertheless, we take in the impressions and some photos.

Now we have about a two and a half hour drive to San Francisco - but wait, don't we pass by Laguna Seca? In Laguna Seca there is a race track (MotoGP or Gran Turismo fans should be familiar with it) that houses one of the coolest corners in motorsport, the 'Corkscrew'. Flo has to go there, a little detour and we're already on the hill with the entrance to the track. And indeed, there is an event going on, there are certainly some racing cars on the track. We walk to the Corkscrew and watch the action.

The subsequent drive to San Francisco is unfortunately tedious. Lots of traffic and two traffic jams on the highway. We don't arrive at the hotel on Fishermans Wharf until around 7:30 p.m. We hand over the car key at the entrance - our car will be taken to 'Valet Parking' somewhere.

For dinner, we'll take the first Italian restaurant we come across. Pizza for a change... but it also tastes very American.