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Day 1:    [ from Amsterdam to Los Angeles ]

The journey started at the 9th of September 1993 from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. It was not a direct flight to Los Angeles but I had a stop over in Boston. Unfortunately I had to wait for about 4 hours because the plane of the connecting flight was delayed in Chicago. Finally I arrived in Los Angeles and went to the hotel. At last I could go to sleep, the end of a long first day of about 23 hours.

Day 2:   [ Los Angeles, Universal Studio's ]

In the morning in the hotel lobby I get acquainted with the rest of the touring group. After loading the minibus we did some sight seeing in Beverly Hills and went to the Universal Studio's. The appearance of the Blues Brothers, the Miami Vice stunt show the the "Back to the Future" thrill ride where some of the highlights of this visit. In the "Back of the Future" ride you are sitting in a car and you are looking to a film screen which makes you believe that you are really flying. After this visit we went to our first camp site which was called "El Capitan" in Santa Barbara.

Day 3:   [ California Coast drive ]

Today we drove from Santa Barbara along the beautiful coast of California to our next camp site "Fernwood" in Big Sur. Along the way we stopped a few times to take pictures and to have some lunch. We had a longer stop on the way at a nice deserted sand beach. The water was too cold to swim in so we did some relaxation on the beach before we went to the camp site.  On the camp site we did some walking around and admired the big trees.

Day 4:   [ Carmel, San Francisco ]

In the morning we visited a monastery in the city Carmel. The well known actor Clint Eastwood has been the mayor of this city for a number of years. It was a cloudy day because of the incoming fog from the sea. In the afternoon we arrived in San Francisco. The weather had became very nice and we did some sight seeing of San Francisco. First we went to the top of a hill where we had a very nice panorama view of San Francisco. Then we went to a park in where we had a view on old wooden houses with in the background the modern skyline of downtown S.F. Of course a visit to the Golden Gate bridge was part of our sight  seeing tour. We were dropped at the beginning of the bridge and we walked to the other site where we were picked up again. In the evening we had diner at a Mongolian barbecue restaurant.

Day 5:    [ San Francisco - Alcatraz ]

In the morning we went to the Fisherman Wharf by Cable Car. A Cable Car is a kind of tram driven not by an electric engine but by a constantly moving cable in the ground where the it can grasp to. It is about 100 years old already and is purely kept operational for the tourists. From the Fisherman Wharf we took a boat to the prison island Alcatraz. There we took a walkman guided tour through the prison building. After this visit we went back to downtown S.F. to pay a visit to China Town, Golden Gate park and via the Town Hall to the Hard Rock cafe, where we had our dinner. Also the evening we spent in the Hard Rock cafe, where we drunk some cocktails.

Day 6:    [ San Francisco ]

By Cable Car we went to Fisherman Wharf. Along the way we had a look to another tourist attraction, Lombard Street. This winding road decorated with flower boxes is probable the only street in S.F. which is not straight. On Fisherman Wharf we did some sight seeing and visited a few of the many tourists shops. Further we visited the Coit Tower on the Telegraph Hill. From this tower you have a nice view of the city of S.F. After the dinner in the Italian district we went to a luxury hotel with an interesting restaurant on the top floor of the building. This restaurant turns round very slowly so the visitor has a nice view of S.F.

Week 2