Thanks for all the cards and wedding cards :). It makes us feel at home.
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Alternatives to driving in California
From Amsterdam we are used to get around by public transport, walking and of course cycling.
If you are brave enough to cycle around here (you feel very small next to the vans and SUVs), you find quite some cycling path on the road. And to make it easy the state put up nice, educative signs.
Also when you walk you feel the state is taking care of you. So “Cross with Caution” and don’t forget to look.
And if something happened the sheriff will do his work.
The reward for walking is that you have time to look at the beautiful flowers and grapefruits are growing right above your head.
Just don’t look too close, some things are not as real as they seem on first sight.
Driving in California
We were already warned that you need a car to get around in the US. In our area, there are only a few bus lines and the time tables don’t match with the local train service, so public transport sometimes takes more than twice as long as going by car. So, like the Americans, we drive a lot.
Although there live several million people in Silicon Valley, it’s basically one big suburb. There are a few small town centers, though we haven’t seen one that was much more than a single street.
Sunnyvale’s city center
Live revolves around home, the office, the big supermarkets and when you need something special, the mall. It seems to us that people socialize in the restaurants located around parking areas. It all requires getting around by car.
Pretty much the whole valley consists of a repeating pattern: for every three to four streets with houses or an apartment complex there’s a big avenue. Except for the repetitive planning rather than organic growing of the grid, that’s not unusual in Europe. But! Look at how wide these streets are:
And then take the avenues: they’re almost as wide as a Dutch freeway!
Yes, you see ridiculously sized cars all the time.
Traffic rules are slightly different than in Europe. Not necessarily simpler, but the Californian penalty system basically doesn’t punish drivers for minor offenses – unless a major offense has been made on top of it. So people don’t indicate, but jump on their brakes when there’s a stop sign, because ignoring one would be a major offense. We believe that people don’t really seem to know the rules anymore, other than that they have to stay under the speed limit. Anyway, driving is quite laid back: only few people are speeding and at cross roads drivers are waiting for one another to go because it’s so unclear who has the right of way. On the other hand, there’s totally unpredictable driving behavior too, like overtaking on the right-hand side and subsequently changing two lanes to the left. Without indicating, that is.
Even little Cupertino has a few of these big freeways.
Yes, we’re complaining a bit, because we’re so used on getting around by bike and trains. But it definitely is a luxury to be able to drive anywhere and always be able to park close to your destination. If only we didn’t have global warming …
In one of our earlier posts we also complained a bit about the bad quality of the road surfaces. We still find that the freeway is no match for the Autobahn or snelweg: there are pot holes and at times it can be so bumpy and rough that it feels and sounds like your driving with a flat tire. It seems typical now: make a lot of stuff, make it big and don’t care too much about what will happen next. We’ll save that story for another time.
Edit: Freeway image added.
Some Japanese culture
And all of a sudden we find ourselves in …
… Japan Town, San Francisco. There the cherry blossom festival was celebrated with a long, appropriately funny weird parade.
San Francisco turns out to be a very nice city, also thanks to Gustaf’s tips! Very different from the rather boring suburb we are living in right now. As Koos’ contract will be extended till the end of August, we are now looking for an apartment in San Francisco.
A new home
Exactly a week ago we moved from the hotel into our new home. Everything is super sized, we have a super sized fridge for the huge packages (the smallest milk bottle is 1/2 gallon which sounds small until you convert it: its 1.89 liter, same for juice and eggs only come in 12, 24 or even 48 packs). The microwave is extra wide, same goes for the oven and you need that to fit in the extra large Pizza. We really make use of what we learned from Starbucks: “there is just no small.”
The apartment is really nice and makes us feel at home. Especially the amenities of the apartment complex are great. Koos uses the gym every morning ( to not get super sized ;)) and Ruth is enjoying sun bathing at the pool.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Yesterday we went to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park, a protected area about an hour’s drive from our home. We think this forest explains why everything the American’s make is so big. I mean, pretty much everything from cars, the freeways, to bags of chips and men’s suits are just bigger than in Europe. Big Basin is characterized by the Redwoods, or Sequoia trees. From a distance, it looks rather ordinary, but getting closer it feels like the whole world has become four times as large!
It’s hard to show in a picture, but these trees are huge.
And to be fair, everything was different from what we’re used too: the rough texture of the bark of the trees, the hard leaves of the shrubs, the giant woodpecker. Very impressive. And look at that slug! Just look at it:
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- And what’s with these giant yellow slugs!?
Just the hike would already have made our weekend, but later that day we met with Priya, Karthik and their daughter Thea. It was a wonderful evening with stories, good food and lots of fun. Koos knew Priya from his time at Novatium in Chennai and they happen to live only a few kilometers away from us. What are the odds of that!
edit: more pictures added
We zijn in Californië!
Zaterdag zijn we de hele dag bezig geweest met inpakken en ons onderhuurappartement weer in z’n oorspronkelijk gedecoreerde staat terugbrengen. Het is altijd een flinke klus om uit te zoeken wat belangrijk is en wat je eigenlijk niet nodig hebt, maar het geeft ook een goed opgeruimd gevoel dat alle spullen die je de komende tijd nodig hebt, gewoon in een paar tassen passen.
Gelukkig waren Koos’ ouders zondag nog even naar Schiphol gekomen om ons uit te zwaaien, want we bleken toch nog heel wat spul te hebben wat niet mee hoefde. Afscheid nemen is het minst leuke van reizen, maar het was leuk dat we ze nog even konden zien!
Vanuit een ijskoud Nederland, waar we vanuit het vliegtuigraampje nog even een sneeuwbui zagen, zijn we zondagochtend vertrokken naar San Francisco. Daar mochten we nog eens 2 uur in de rij voor de douane staan, waardoor Ruth zich danig zorgen begon te maken dat iemand onze bagage ondertussen zou stelen. Toen we langs de trouwens heel vriendelijke douanebeambte waren, was haar rugtas inderdaad nergens te vinden! Bij de KLM-balie werd ons verteld dat op Schiphol iemand had besloten dat Ruth’s rugtas niet met het vliegtuig kon, maar die wordt als het goed is vandaag in het hotel bezorgd.
Vanaf de luchthaven zijn we met een huurauto naar het hotel gereden. Alles was van tevoren door Koos’ opdrachtgever georganiseerd, maar toch had de olijke mevrouw van het autoverhuurbedrijf er een goed halfuur voor nodig om ons te vertellen waar we de auto af konden halen en waarbij geen mogelijkheid ongebruikt werd gelaten om ons extra verzekering en diensten te verkopen.
Op advies van Scott hebben we niet de kortste weg genomen naar Silicon Valley, maar zijn we over de interstate 280 gereden, omdat je daar niet een uurlang door de suburbs rijdt en een mooi uitzicht hebt. En het wás een mooie rit! Mooie beboste heuvels, af en toe een meertje. Het lanschap komt ons door films en TV ook wel wat bekend voor, maar wat je daar niet in meekrijgt is de beroerde kwaliteit van het wegdek. Verder zijn de wegen trouwens helemaal goed. Er was veel ruimte en iedereen rijdt er netjes, maar dat kan ook te maken hebben dat het de middag van eerste paasdag was.
In het hotel aangekomen, leek het ons het beste om eerst maar een paar uurtjes te slapen en daarna wat te gaan eten. In Nederlandse tijd was het namelijk al 1 uur ‘s nachts. Dat liep iets anders omdat we twee keer de wekker gewoon uitgezet hebben en toen rond middernacht allebei wakker werden. Maar ja, slapen kunnen we best wel goed, dus dat hebben we toen nog een uur of zes gedaan, waardoor die jet lag nu in één keer weg zou moeten zijn.