Day 7 Observations and comments.

“Touch wood”, everything has worked out very well indeed. My car from San Francisco airport to the Hotel Nikko arrived just minutes after, as instructed, I made the phone call. Hotel staff were ready to transfer my luggage to my hotel room. There was a snag; despite my being in possession of the correct documents, Hotel Nikko wasn’t expecting me until 4th February. Today was Jan. 31st! Hurriedly, they allocated me one of their larger bedrooms for the one night. On request, I presented them with my credit card, and they promptly withdrew $300.00 from my Current Account as surety. When I did return after 4 days away, my protests “went on deaf ears”, but I was assured this would be refunded minus any hotel charges and costs of loss or damage. Although I consider myself widely travelled, I have no recollection of being required to pay “up front” for “stuff that might happen”. However, this also applied on the Queen Mary, so I presume this is now normal. My room for the remaining two nights was much smaller, but equally sumptuous and very comfortable. Being situated in Downtown S.F., eating out, even in traditional diners felt expensive. Breakfast always came in at between 20 and 30 dollars including tax and 15% gratuity. These days, the bill calculates “voluntary” tips at 15, 18, and 20%!

As previously mentioned on numerous occasions, the weather was unusually cold, despite the absence of San Francisco’s notorious fogs which do cool things down considerably anyway; but is local to the city. This particular cold snap has affected all of CA.

I enjoyed the bus tours immensely and would gladly do these again.

Thanks for reading; comments always welcome.

David.