This morning I went to the National rental office to get my car. It turned out a Chevrolet Malibu L5 with on-board computer (trip recording, tire pressure, expected mileage, etc), -of course- automatic gearbox and a great car stereo. That’s good as I bought an iTrip (FM transmitter) for my iPod Touch last wednesday so I can play my music out loud in full stereo while I’m doing my road trip

As I was not so far away from Silicon Valley (and I of course work in the Internet Branche) I went to have a look at the Google Campus in Mountain View. While the buildings are not really impressive and there is really not much too see other than offices, the size of the campus amazes me. It’s massive!

From Google’s campus it was a 10 minute drive to my next wanna-see spot, the house of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs (you’re a Mac fan or you’re not on Waverley Street, Palo Alto He’s got a really nice house, not so huge nor hidden away but really quite accessible in a nice neighbourhood. Impressive that you can buy such a house on a $ 1,- a year salary

It looks like he’s at home today; the Mercedes without the license plates (because they got stolen all the time he’s allowed to drive without a license plate) is his. I guess the other one is his wifes?

After having seen Steve’s house my next stop was Apple Campus at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino:

After my short drive around Silicon Valley I headed for Yosemite National Park, my destination for the day. I stayed at the Yosemite Bug Hostel in Midpines where I met a couple of Dutch people. The office seemed to have overbooked my dorm though as a (Dutch) girl was pulling on my blanket saying that I was sleeping in her bed. I guess the office messed up as that bed was empty and cleened. Lucky for her a guy had a sleeping bag so she slept on the floor. Better than nothing I guess…