Day 18 - Napa Valley + San Francisco (21.10.2016)

On the last day in Napa, we drive directly to the outlet center to experience our first major shopping in the States. We plan to equip ourselves with various items here.

The entire day is characterized by shopping and has no major highlights. To finish off, we drive 2 more hours to our hotel in San Francisco. We have chosen a route that takes us over the Golden Gate Bridge.

We intentionally chose this so that before entering San Francisco, we can take the exit before the Golden Gate Bridge and enjoy the view of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge for a while.

We are hitting the optimal time and arrive directly at sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge. This way, we get a beautiful view of the bridge with the sunset and then the view of the bridge at night with all the lights of the city in the background.

After taking various pictures of the bridge and still not getting enough of the view, we decide to drive to our hotel.

The Hilton Hotel is located in the Financial District and we still have to pass through a large part of the city to get there.

One more note about the Golden Gate Bridge: You have to pay a toll to drive across the bridge. If you are coming from the north, you can't pay this toll in cash. It will be charged to the rental car company through your license plate. Then, the company will charge it to your credit card.

Finally, when we arrive at the hotel, we are asked if we still need the car during our three-day stay or if we will need it again at the end. The first option costs significantly more and we make the mistake of choosing it, but in San Francisco, you don't need a car. So, definitely choose to enter the city once and leave once.

We go to the reception and get the keycard for our room. When we arrive on the 15th floor, we encounter the cleaning lady in our room. So, I quickly go to the reception and ask for a replacement room. They offer us a meal in their restaurant and ask us to wait for the finished room. However, they do find another room on a different floor. So, we get an upgrade and end up on the 20th floor.

After settling into the room, we go to the nearby Chinatown to find something to eat. We pass by the restaurant Z&Y with various pictures from the visit of the current President Obama. Besides, there are a lot of locals including Chinese people waiting and eating here, so we decide to join the line and wait for this meal. After a good half an hour, we get a table and the only thing to say about the food is that it is spectacularly good. It tastes like you're eating something directly in Hong Kong.