In mid-April, I went to the Keukenhof, one of the world’s largest flower gardens, near Amsterdam. It is only open for 2 months every year (from mid-March to mid-May). It was a bit too early for tulips during my visit but the park has many other types of flowers.
At the end of the afternoon, I got out of my meeting and finally got to ride the cable car up and down Nob Hill to Fisherman’s Wharf. There, I took the cable car along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building. I switched again for another cable car to the Mission District. I then walked to the Castro area.
For my second (and last) full day in San Francisco, I had to be in a meeting in the Financial District in the afternoon so I stayed close by. After breakfast, I went to the Moscone Center nearby. Then, I wanted to take the cable car at the Powell-Market station but there was a big line so I walked up Nob Hill instead, taking pictures of the cable cars along the way.
After the Presidio, I walked to the Golden Gate Park then continued to the observation area of the Twin Peaks. Finally, I headed down to Market Street and my hotel.
After the Palace of Fine Arts, I entered the Presidio of San Francisco then walked along a beach to the Golden Gate Bridge, at the northern tip of the park. I walked on the bridge until the halfway point then came back to land and took a trail in the hills along the Pacific ocean.
After the boat ride on San Francisco Bay, I kept walking on Fisherman’s Wharf towards the Golden Gate Bridge. I visited the USS Pampanito, a submarine built during WW2. There is also a Liberty Ship nearby (the SS Jeremiah O’Brien) but I didn’t visit it. After that, I entered the Musée Mécanique, a free museum of mechanical games, some quite old. Most of the machines are coin operated and still operational. I then passed through Aquatic Park and Fort Mason on my way to the Palace of Fine Arts, built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.
After Pier 39, I boarded a boat to have a closer look at the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
“Apentafel” (monkey table) by artist Merijn Bolink. It is located in Zoutkeetsplein, in the Zeeheldenbuurt neighborhood of Amsterdam.
At 2,351m, La Tournette is the highest of the mountains surrounding Lake Annecy, in Haute-Savoie. It is part of the Bornes Massif.
The trail is well marked and steep but not that hard except towards the end. It starts at the Chalet de l’Aulp, in the village of Montmin. However, there is no public transportation to get there. So after poring over maps and looking on the internet, I settled for taking the same path I used when I went to Pointe de la Rochette: I first rode my bike to Verthier, at the southern end of the lake, then took the forest trail up to Col de la Forclaz and, finally, walked past Pointe de la Rochette to reach the Chalet. An alternative would have been to start in Talloires and go through Col des Nantets on the way to the Chalet.
Update 2017: There is now a summer shuttle from Talloires to Col de la Forclaz and the center of Montmin. It doesn’t arrive exactly at the Chalet but gets you closer.
Update 2021: The bus lines mentioned above to Col de la Forclaz and Montmin are now operated by SIBRA, the operator of the Annecy bus network: SIBRA lines F1 and F2. They now operate on the week-ends of June and September, as well as every day in July and August. They remain free.
The Lac d’Annecy (Lake Annecy) is located in Haute-Savoie and is the third largest lake in France. In spring, I took my bike on a loop around the lake. The loop is about 42km and should take about 3 hours to complete in one go. Starting in Annecy-le-Vieux, I first followed the road southwards on the eastern shore of the lake and stopped at Roc de Chère, Cascade d’Angon and Réserve Naturelle du Bout du Lac. It started raining heavily at that point so I rushed to go back to Annecy. However, the western shore of the lake is actually the nicest for cyclists, with a flat and fully separate bike lane (Voie Verte), which goes all the way from Annecy to Albertville. I used photos from other times I was on that path instead.