San Francisco and Bay Area

Well, this landmark icon needs no introduction! The Golden Gate bridge that connects the city of San Francisco on the south to Marin headlands on the north. On the left, as you travel northwards, is the Pacific Ocean and on the right is the San Francisco Bay.

This part of the bay area is subject to great winds and fog. Our boat cruise as well as Hendrik Point (from where I took the above picture) were unbearably cold and windy in the middle of June!

The cruise from the SF Pier goes under the bridge the returns to the barking seals of Pier 39. There is also a statue of MK Gandhi on the bay side of the Ferry building a short bus ride away from Pier 39. Other interesting attractions/activities include fortune cookie factory, bargain souvenir shopping and some cultural exposure at one of the oldest, but the largest Chinatown in the world outside of China; the Japanese Tea Garden; riding up and down the famous cable cars; the world's "crookedest" street called Lombard Street; and Alcatraz - the rock island that was once a prison.

Driving on the bridge to the other side was great fun and scenic with fantastic views of the bay and the Pacific Ocean. We took the coastal drive up to Point Reyes which gave us great views of the Pacific. 

Point Reyes was the ground zero of the 1906 earthquake and lies along the San Andreas fault line. This particular area is actually moving a few centimeters to the north every year due to the constant moving of the earth's plates. Sure interesting, but nothing much to see or do otherwise there as it is cold and windy too!

One of the most popular and interesting places to visit in Marin headlands is the Muir Woods. Muir Woods is closer to San Francisco than Point Reyes and has super tall trees that are pretty old. They have a few trails around and it is peaceful and quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of the city. This comes second only to the giant sequoias of Mariposa Grove in Yosemite NP (coming soon!).

 

Further north are Redwood Forests (another forest of giant trees) and of course the Napa Valley, famous for it's vineyards and wine houses.

Ronda, Spain

Ronda is a town located near the Costa del Sol region of Spain. It is located in a mountainous region and offers incredible views. The highlights of any town in this region are the white houses, called pueblo blanco (meaning white village). The residents painted them white to keep the houses cooler during summer.

The Guadalevín river cuts the town of Ronda into half through a deep gorge called El Tajo. It divides the city into the old and new towns. The "new" side of Ronda developed only after a bridge was built across this gorge. This bridge called Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) was built in the late 18th century by Arabs.

Another highlight of our Ronda visit was the orange trees planted along the roads. It was our first time seeing orange trees and my kids loved the experience! We were even allowed to pick.. but the oranges were very sour!

One of our inspirations to visit Spain was the hindi movie, Zindagi na milegi dobara, which has a few scenes of Ronda, especially El Tajo.

Welcome to my travels!

Travel has given me great pleasure. Even more pleasurable are planning before the trip and uploading your pictures and sorting your souvenirs after the trip! Well, the unpleasant ones (I have to share this too!) are rushing to get to the airport on time and of course, doing the laundry on return!

Choosing the right place to stay, organizing the sights to visit, planning culinary adventures within the constraints of vegetarianism (in my case), picking the right time to visit and all these within the walls of our budget adds to the thrill that travel brings. Even then travel has greeted me with pleasant surprises. Be it a steamboat lunch in Bangkok or a surprise vegetarian paella in Spain, I've come to the conclusion that travel is no fun without an element of surprise!

Armed with a point and shoot camera that allows me some freedom and with two kids that still need a lot of attention, I have been moderately successful with my photography. I hope to share my experiences with some pictures.

Now, I only hope I can update this frequently and inspire the readers to travel as well!

Here is a song from Nickelodeon that we are great fans of. Hope you like it too!