Sea fog brought us to San Miguel, a city 10 miles inland and about 15C warmer.
San Miguel is not a very rich city, the hotel was on the verge of very run down, but the city had the one thing we came for: the Mission San Miguel Arcangel, dating from 1797 when Spanish missionaries built a string of Missions from the now Mexican border to the Napa Valley north of San Francisco.
The San Miguel mission is famous for it's paintings in the church (frescos!), plus it's a beautiful example of the Spanish missionary architecture two centuries ago.
And beautiful it is! The afternoon sun shone on the adobe walls, it was 27C, there were no other visitors. Believe me, it was like walking in Central Spain. Nothing reminded us of America anymore, and we loved the Old World atmosphere.
Next day we went back to take a closer look. We spent three hours in the Mission, before hitting the road again.
San Miguel is not a very rich city, the hotel was on the verge of very run down, but the city had the one thing we came for: the Mission San Miguel Arcangel, dating from 1797 when Spanish missionaries built a string of Missions from the now Mexican border to the Napa Valley north of San Francisco.
The San Miguel mission is famous for it's paintings in the church (frescos!), plus it's a beautiful example of the Spanish missionary architecture two centuries ago.
And beautiful it is! The afternoon sun shone on the adobe walls, it was 27C, there were no other visitors. Believe me, it was like walking in Central Spain. Nothing reminded us of America anymore, and we loved the Old World atmosphere.
Next day we went back to take a closer look. We spent three hours in the Mission, before hitting the road again.
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