We are up early but not early enough - breakfast finished 5 mins before we reached the reception to ask if breakfast was complimentary!! We check out anyway and walk to Ghiradelli Square.
It was all still opening when we arrived and a man with earphones was blasting the street dirt away with a power hose. Avoiding the water as much as possible, we buy chocolate from the Ghiradelli Chocolate Shop and head to the trolley car so we don't have to climb the very big hills back to the car! We do have to go down a couple of steep hills though, making us think of John Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks. I decide against risking breaking my neck by goose-stepping down the hill Back in the car, we find the Cliff House easily and wait there for Joe and Jean... and eight other people! We have lunch and a good natter before finally making our way into San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House.
Mrs Winchester's husband and daughter both died before she was 40 and, being a spiritual woman, believed they had been taken by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifles. To appease (or confuse!) these spirits, she moved into an 8-bedroom house and, over 38 years of 24/7 construction and building work, turned it into a 6-acre 160 roomed house. Work only stopped after 38 years because she popped her clogs. The house includes a door to nowhere (open the door and drop 12 feet to the outside ground), a cupboard that opens into a wall, and a staircase that goes up to the ceiling... She was mad. Evidently. Jenny and I said in every room, "This woman is mad/ bonkers/ weird..." and other variations of 'whacked-out pyscho'. Melissa would have loved it.
TOTAL MILES: 48.66
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