Carmel

Our final, most southerly stop was Carmel-by-the-sea.  Many famous people lived here, including Clint Eastwood, who served as mayor for 2 years.

It is quite picturesque, with lots of flowers everywhere and little squares with tourist shops.

It was still daytime when we arrived there, which is a good job, because, as our driver told us, there are no streetlights here - once it's dark, it's dark.

There was a very steep hill to walk down to get to the beach and consequently a very steep hill to walk back up again to return to the pick up point, as coaches aren't allowed to take people down to the seafront.

I made it all the way down to the seafront, although there wasn't an awful lot to see there really - and once I'd taken a few photos from the look-out point, I started the trek back up the hill.

By this time, the sun was starting to get low as it was getting on a bit in the day.

After leaving Carmel, we drove back to San Francisco, although most of the trip was inland, so there wasn't much of a view of the sea, but I did get to see the sunset from the coach.

Eventually, we arrived back at just about half past eight, and I was able to take the BART back across the bay to my hotel in Oakland in preparation for moving over to San Francisco the next day.