10^10^100

I am in California this week and next, This week in Mountain View, next week in San Francisco.

I'm staying in a corporate apartment, and either catching the bus or cycling to work in the mornings.

Its about 10 years since I was in california last, and I've never been to MTV before. First impressions are that its very well manicured - clean and green. Nicer then I remember Oakland being. The freeways are a lot smoother now than I remember them being as well.

There's an amazing 2nd hand bookshop in town, with the largest SF/F section I've seen in any bookshop anywhere. Just as well for our shelves at home that I have no book budget and no space to pack books in my luggage at the moment :-)

I've stuck some pictures from my trip online at picasaweb.google.co.uk/rrcollier/MountainViewSanFranciscoSeptember2010 and I may add more.

I took the shuttle into work on tuesday morning, but was able to collect a visitors bike in the afternoon, so with the aid of google-maps cycle-navigation I was able to cycle home to my apartment in the evening. This is the route I took maps.google.com/maps. The Stevens Creek trail is lovely, and it has been a joy to cycle in Mountain View so far. The roads are wide and smooth, and there are marked cyclepaths along the edges of most roads.

Mostly I've been avoiding the worst effects of Jetlag, but I'm not looking forward to the jetlag going home.

I don't have much time for sightseeing here in Mountain View but will have the weekend to myself in San Francisco. I'll see how it goes.