Saturday, 16 April 2016
After all the wine the night before we needed a big breakfast. Our hotel was right in downtown and was one of the many historic buildings in this quaint town. This was really the first time we had decided to buy a big American breakfast and as it turns out, was a great choice. The food and service were fantastic – just what we required after last night’s efforts.
No time to waste, our itinerary was forcing us to move on. We packed up and headed off to our next destination, Carmel-by-the-Sea (Carmel for short) which was half a day’s drive away up along the Pacific Coast highway. But first, seeing we were in this great wine growing region, we decided to take a quick drive up along the hills through the wine country. This place was just beautiful, and seemed to be much more laid back than either Sonoma or Napa. Again we were leaving a place where we wished we had more time to explore.
So on toward the coast we drove. Pacific Coast Highway is one of the most famous coastal drives anywhere in the world and we were wandering if it was hype or really was spectacular like people say it is. Well, we can say, now having driven along it, it is not hype, it is truly amazing. Because of the seismic activity along the Californian coast, the hills just jump strait out of the ocean, creating amazing vistas. The road winds its way right next to big cliffs, bays and beaches with these stunning hills (which also at this time of year just happened to be covered in wild flowers).
We had anticipated taking about 3 hours to do the section from Paso Robles to Carmel, but we just kept stopping along the way to take in the dramatic views. One of the other things along this stretch of road is the Hearst Ranch, better known as Hearst Castle. Needless to say we had to stop to see what all the fuss was about. We weren’t disappointed. Originally we thought the place would be gaudy and tacky, but we were happy to be wrong. It is really worth the visit. First you have the location, high up on a hilltop overlooking the coast, surrounded by verdant pastures, then you have this amazing architecture surrounded by stunning gardens, then you have all these amazing antiques, collected by Mr William Randolph Hearst, then you have the history of the place where all these amazing celebrities once stayed. Very cool!
Despite how beautiful the castle was, we really had to move on. Here are some shots of the drive up the coast. Gorgeous.
With all the stops along the way, and with all that wine we consumed the night before, we were a bit exhausted when we finally rolled into Carmel. As this was the last day before flying out, we had to organise all our things and get our bags ready to go for the airport. One of the things we had to do was to find a way to pack all the wine we’d purchased along the way. And this is when disaster struck. Grabbing one of the suitcases out of the car, Trevor hadn’t realised that the zip was not closed and so, on pulling out the bag, it opened, and with it, its contents, including some of the wine fell out onto the pavement. There was a smash and liquid started spreading out across the ground. This was followed by quite a few expletives! Needless to say we were both very distressed. Luckily, out of the five or so bottles that hit the ground, only one broke – just happened to be one of the most expensive wines we had, but hey, it could have been much worse.
Anyway after that terrible accident, we decided to go into town and check it out (and get a drink to lessen the pain). It was the weekend and another stunningly beautiful sunny day and the town of Carmel was packed (think of Portsea in the summer on a nice weekend and you get the idea). Speaking of Portsea, Carmel very much reminded us of it, i.e. a beachside playground for rich, good looking people. After wandering around the main shopping streets (which were full of very nice shops and restaurants), we started thinking that we needed to eat.
The lady from our Airbnb had suggested a few spots, so we went looking for one where we could get in. As we said earlier, the place was packed, the first place we checked offered us potentially something around 9:30pm, which was hours away. Then we realised that they had a rooftop bar, so we went upstairs to see if we could find place to get a drink. Luckily someone was leaving just as we got there, so we got a spot to sit straight away – our luck was turning and we immediately started feeling better.
We quickly decided that we liked it here and decided to settle in. And so we ordered a pizza and some pasta to share and some drinks and just sat back and relaxed and enjoyed the buzz of the rooftop bar.
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