Day 16 ~ Napa Valley

Today we left reasonably early from the Donatello and got a taxi to the Ferry Building.  It kind of reminded me of Sydney in a way, you leave the city and there's this gem beyond the hustle and bustle (in this case San Francisco Bay).

The Ferry Building is where we got a quick breakfast (interestingly, we haven't had a problem with finding good coffee here, it's tea that's causing me to miss the good old cuppa).  Strangely, the hotel rooms have tea bags, but they don't have jugs to boil water, they possibly expect that the coffee machine can do that with a good old tea/coffee flavor combo.

Ferry Building

Golden Gate Bridge in Fog

The tour that we chose was a shuttle rather than a coach so the numbers were reduced somewhat and the return home was partly via ferry back to the Ferry Building.  4 wineries were included in the tour - Mondavi, Andretti (for those of you who are up on car racing, yes, this is the same guy), Franciscan, and the Folie de Deux.  The driver was very knowledgeable, but by the end of the day, it was nice when he actually stopped talking:)


We had a relatively small group of 34 and only 2 other Australians (oi, oi, oi).  There was an interesting couple on our tour who I would like to talk more about, but I actually can't think of words to describe them (there's always one in every bunch isn't there?).  After leaving the fog of San Francisco behind, the weather was perfect, probably mid-20s and not a cloud in the sky so a great day for sampling wine.  Strangely for us, we had to pay for our tastings.  One winery seemed to discount your wine if you purchased 2 + bottles, but that is difficult when you're heading home in a couple of days.

Are those guys for real?

Us at Andretti

Yes ... I think they are!

The wine region was lovely and it was nice to step out of the city for a day and experience more of what San Francisco has to offer.  We got to see (and drive along) the Golden Gate Bridge which was fogged in this morning, but by the time we headed home, we did get some good shots.  Also Alcatraz, which we will be visiting on Friday morning, but we did see in the distance today.  We also went past San Quentin State Prison, but we didn't catch a glimpse of any of the inmates thankfully.

The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz