This vacation did  start slightly different than normal – instead of heading straight to the starting point of a tour, I did a sort of stop-over in San Francisco to visit Lisa, who I had met on my trip to Antarctica in 2010 and remained in touch with ever since.

So on Saturday September 8th I flew into San Francisco (a very pleasant flight, thanks to getting upgraded to the upper deck of the A380). Lisa picked me up at the airport, we drove over to the other side of the bay into Oakland and Lisa showed we around a bit to take in the bay views and get a snack. In the evening we had (homemade) Korean style BBQ with the neighbors. Unfortunately the jet-lag hit in around 21:00 … and I ended up in bed (relatively) early.

On Sunday we made it over the bay into San Francisco, after a quick stop at the switchbacks at Lombard Street we continued across the Golden Gate bridge into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We left the car at the visitor center and walked over to lighthouse at Point Bonita – with a picnic stop on the way back.

After the walk we made our way back to San Francisco, where we parked in the Mission district for a walk to see the mural paintings in the area; dinner was in a cozy tapas bar in the area and included (beside other items) grilled artichoke, jamon iberico(the best cured am Spain has to  offer) and a delicious Tempranillo – heaven 😉