Coast
to Coast 2026
Part
7 Highway One
Danish pastry for breakfast in a Danish themed hotel in a Danish town Solvang. After a walk
around the town and an icecream it was
time to get on the road again heading north to follow the coast road and
glimpse the sea through rolling countryside. It was a slow drive with Gita
getting us all the way to Monteray . Checking in at the Arbour Inn about 6.45
and then finding somewhere to eat was not easy by the time we had sorted
ourselves out it was eight and places to eat would be closing. The suggestion
from the hotel was to head for the sea front. It was about a twenty minute walk
to find the road that lead to the front and found a pub that did food and was also
a brewery serving craft ales arriving just in time to order a meal. Ribs again
and avoiding fries.
We breakfasted at Denny’s and filled up the car at the petrol station next door and then went to Fishermans Wharf missing the turning for the car park and had to come back to park in a square opposite the main car park. Parking up we left the car in a loading bay just to look at the wharf. We taken a risk in a thirty minute loading bay and returned just in time to meet the traffic warden doing his rounds and ask us to move so as not to get a ticket.
The next destination was The Mission in Carmel. It was the largest one and part of the series of twenty Missions in that area each with a day’s walk of the next. Set up as a Christian network to promote Catholicism in California. It was an amazing place for meditation with chapels, dormitories, gardens, cemetery and courtyards.
We stayed longer than expected leaving just before two for the four and a half hour drive to San Francisco. Following the satnav which seemed to take us through miles of fields to avoid traffic delays it felt like the Mission had been our Hotel California. We did escape and found Highway One and after a couple of hours pulled off at Morro Beach to find food and see the Seal Sanctuary.
Suitably refreshed we continued on past the Big Sur as the day was disappearing. I had a plan to go across the Golden Gate bridge but that was scotched by fog as we got to San Francisco so we went straight to the hotel. The Bay Bridge Inn, it did not feel that secure as the car parking was between two roads and used as a cut through for cycle delivery guys. Having set up camp we took an Uber to see Haight Ashbury discovering two Irish pubs while window shopping. Most of the shops were closed. The first pub was Reilly’s that was billed to have live music but not tonight so we moved on to the Mad Dog to sink more pints of Guinness.
