Roundtrip USA/Westcoast
September 2000/October 2000

The destination of this trip was the american westcoast. It was a dream of me to make this vacation and so I decided to take myself time to see a lot. Altogether it was very varied and certainly beautiful. The flight with Delta Airlines was ok, but nothing special. The destination was Los Angeles. I was a little bit disappointed of this city. You imagine LA as a very special city, when you here its name. My guide wrote about this city: "Los Angeles is a pile of towns, which are looking for a city...". Punctual at 7pm all the shops closed and no people were on the streets in downtown anymore. Furthermore there were many (nerving) homeless persons. I found the famous Hollywood-sign not before the third day and in the first bar I had to pay 6$ for a beer, exorbitant! Unfortunately it seemed to be the only bar in downtown... Anyway, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica (Malibu and Venice Beach inclusive) were very nice and both have wonderful large white sand beaches, like in TV.

I prefered San Diego. This city has some flair and the pacific right next door. The historic Gaslamp Quarter with its snuggly bars invite for a glass of beer and you can feel the nearness of Mexico. The enxt stop was called Palm Springs, a little pensioner town. Then the Grand Canyon, one highlight of this trip. We did a hike down on the Bright Angel Trail. 20km distance with an altitude change of 973m. It took nearly seven hours and cause of 32°C in the canyon, it was really exhausting. Therefore a very special and impressive experience.

 Monument Valley has a nice landscape, but you can see the famus rocks from the park entrance, just a drive-in-park. After this we drove to the Arches N.P. Fantastic bridges and arches in a bright red and you can walk long trails. On our way to Capitol Reef N.P. we crossed the Lake Powell (funny to see a flooded canyon) by ferry. After so much rocks, it was not so interesting there. We continued to the wonderful Bryce Canyon N.P. and then to Las Vegas. It's unbelievable to see Las Vegas by night! I was speechless. There is the Eiffel Tower in the measure 1:2 and you can drive to the top with a lift as on the real one. Moreover the new highlight: "Venetian" -  A reproduction of the Marcus Place with gondolas and a lake in front of the hotel -, a pirate's battle at Treasure Island and the show of "Siegfried and Roy". I wanted to ride the rollercoaster on the Stratosphere-Tower, unfortunately it was on maintenance. But I could enjoy the view from the top. However, we stayed in the Luxor, the black pyramid, larger than the real pyramids in Kairo. In front of the hotel was an obelisk and a sphinx, brilliant, even if you consider that's in the desert.

I nearly stepped on a rattle snack in the Death Valley, uh, that was an experience I could renounce. After tarantulas in the Grand Canyon and coyotes in teh Joshua Tree N.P., pure nature! With 40°C  we stood at the deepest point of the US and be astonished by the desert. Hiking again in the Yosemite N.P. Unfortunately they "turned" the waterfalls off, because there were no snow melting. Nevertheless the valley was beautiful and I understand why it's the most popular N.P. Once again San Francisco filled me with enthusiasm. Down the Pacific Highway, we reached LA again. The plane had a short delay and was overbooked. So we had to wait two hours sitting in the plane, not really funny...

But it was a great vacation!!!

Hollywood-Sign/Los Angeles	Joshua Tree N.P.	Down in the Grand Canyon
Monument Valley	Arche N.P.	Zion N.P.
Death Valley N.P.	Yosemite N.P.	Golden Gate Bridge/San Francisco
	Lone Pine/17-Mile-Drive

Back