When we visited Freiburg together with my sister and brother in law I definitely wanted to see the minster and the bell tower with the big historic bells (general information about the minster and it’s bells can be found on Wikipedia). I’m not a religious person at all, but I like sacral buildings a lot – for their ambiance, architecture, and the sense of calm they often seem to provide.
Travel
Road Trip Day 9 & 10 – Big Sur again and home
The ninth day of our road trip was mainly a lot of driving. Originally, our idea had been to go from wherever we would end up on day eight (which turned out to be Klamath Falls in Oregon, after visiting Crater Lake National Park) roughly down to San Francisco or maybe a little bit further south, staying inland and using I-5 as much as possible.
Road Trip Day 8 – Crater Lake
Originally my plan had been to drive a little bit back south again from Crescent City for a day of hiking at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park with a visit to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon, but since we had gotten a good fix of redwood forests already on day four, day six and day seven we spontaneously decided to go further north and inland, into Oregon, and more precisely to Crater Lake National Park.
Road Trip Day 7 – Humboldt County
After a good night’s sleep my condition was much improved on Thursday when we continued to head further north from Eureka. Our first stop was at the Arcata Marshes, an interesting area since it is a “natural waste water treatment plant.” While it is a peaceful and beautiful area that is surely very attractive to birders and bird photographers, we didn’t spend too much time there, and continued a little further up north on Highway 101.
Road Trip Day 6 – Avenue of the Giants
Day 6 of our road trip (September 11th) was pretty much a driving day – leisurely of course, and the distance we covered was only from Petaluma to Eureka (about 240 miles/380 km). It was also good for me because Shuwen was driving and I could doze in the passenger seat, struggling with the cold.
Road Trip Day 5 – Point Reyes
On day 5 of our road trip I saw no improvement to my sore throat and general condition unfortunately – we proceeded as planned to Point Reyes on Highway 1 via the Golden Gate Bridge (stopped to make photos, but the conditions were really meh). I had underestimated how long and winding the road and drive to Point Reyes is via Highway 1 and we reached Point Reyes Station around noon, just in time for lunch.
Road Trip Day 3 – Point Lobos, Monterey & Big Sur again
The third day of our trip began with a visit to Point Lobos, an area that I had visited before in May when traveling with Douglas. We began our little hike in the northern part, to Whaler’s Cove and the old Whaler’s Cabin, then continued into the beautiful Allan Memorial Grove with it’s gnarly cypress trees. There was a lot of old kelp and seaweed in the waters of the coves so it wasn’t really a pretty sight and most of all, long exposures didn’t work too well with these swimming beds of crap (it just becomes a blurry dark mass in the water in a long exposure).
Road Trip Day 2 – Hearst Castle & Big Sur
The second day of our road trip began with the drive from Santa Maria to Hearst Castle, where we had booked a tour of the upper rooms in advance (which we were told is highly advisable). We were a bit early and took the time to get some information about the castle and it’s backgrounds from the panels in the visitor center. I didn’t know that William Randolph Hearst was actually the kid of a rich father that went slightly overboard with his “little something on the hill”, for example. It’s an interesting place!
Road Trip Day 1 – Guadalupe
Here is a little gallery with images from the first day of our road trip. Click on any of the images to open it larger. Some more info is below. 🙂
SAN-2-SEA days 7 to 9
I spent the last 3 days of the trip in Seattle with Doug and his wife so this is just a brief summary and gallery of the photos that I made during these days.
After shopping on Thursday morning for home-cooked dinner and dessert (I made Tiramisu) we headed east a little bit, wanting to do a hike at Mount Si. Just as we reached the trailhead parking lot, it started to rain (Mount Si belongs to the westernmost extension of the Cascade Range and as such is a moisture-barrier). We began the hike, hoping it would only be a brief shower, but when the rain didn’t stop and I remember the sweet walks and hikes on muddy trails in Germany, I asked to call it a day. The two days along the Oregon coast were enough rain and weather for a while for me. 😛