San Jose, Palo Alto and Stanford

My second full weekend in California started with a severe cold that had me spend Friday and most of Saturday in bed. Somehow the combination of a very moody weather and constant air conditioning was something my body is not particularly fond of. Fortunately Sunday morning I woke up feeling a lot better and spontaneously decided to go on a day trip with my housemate at 11.22 a.m. - the CalTrain would leave at 12 - so the decision was on short notice, but we made it to the train and to San Jose in time for a late lunch.

Apart from a nice burger, San Jose did not have that much to offer. Although being the tenth biggest city in the U.S. it does not have as many sights or must-see areas as San Francisco, so we decided to make use of our day-ticket and stop in Palo Alto on the way back, a place best known as being headquarters to facebook and HP and as home of the first Apple-store.

From the city centre it is a nice walk along the avenue towards Stanford University. After I have had a stroll around the campus, I wonder how anyone can study here in the summer. There is a beautiful lake and it has so many green spots that are too inviting not to simply be lying around in the sun all day. But shelling out a tuition of almost 40,000 dollars, I suppose you can't afford to be lazy. But see for yourself - the black-and-white picture of the lake was taken on Stanford Campus as well.