Despite my username, I have been living and working in Dubai now for almost three years. One of the perks of my job is that I get to travel the world.
Most of these trips are just routine, but, I decided to do a trip report for this one as it contains some rail based trips.
I was invited by Dubai Government to attend a week long trip to San Francisco to visit companies in Silicone Valley, the purpose of the trip is to visit the likes go Google, Uber etc and look at their X units (Disruptive Innovation).
So, at 6am on Saturday 22nd April an SMS message from Emirates informed me my chauffeur was waiting to collect me, 20 minutes later I was deposited outside the First Class check-in desks and my bags were whisked away from me.
A quick breakfast in the lounge and I was all ready to board EK225 to San Francisco, todays steed was A380 A6-EET.
There was no upgrade for me today, so I settled into seat 25A in Business Class for the next 16 hours.
This was one really long flight, three weeks ago I had a flight to Chicago which was of similar length, however this one really dragged.
If you have ever travelled First or Business Class on Emirates, then you know there is a bar at the back of the plane, I spent about 3 hours here talking to the flight crew before going back to my seat and eating dinner and watching a couple of movies.
Todays route took us right over the North Pole and I was looking forward to looking down as we crossed the ice, unfortunately there was a lot of cloud and could not see anything.
Our route across the pole
Moving map of journey
Moving map of journey
Finally after nearly 16 hours we touched down in SFO and I made my way to my hotel in Palo Alto and arrived about 5pm local time.
Sunday was a free day and jet lag kicked in big time and I was awake by 4am, so I decided to get out of bed and see if I could do some train trips around the area.
After a few minutes searching I realised I was 20 minutes away fro San Jose so decided to plan a day from there.
The plan was, Uber to San Jose, Amtrak Capital Corridor to Sacramento, quick turnaround and back to Emeyville for the Amtrak bus to San Francisco. Once in the city I would take a vintage tram over to 4th and King and get the Caltrain back to Palo Alto.
I will post some pictures below, however some things that really impressed me, Amtrak was a double decker coach where most people were directed upstairs, the seats were huge compared to the the UK and every seat lined up with a window.
There was a cafe coach that was opened from 5 minutes before departure from San Jose to arrival in Sacramento and the food was cheap and good!
Also there were an amazing amount of announcements that were clear and friendly, plenty of good information given and the conductor was continually coming through the coach speaking to people, very friendly and very proactive.
Although the journey from San Jose to Sacramento is short compare to other American rail journeys, the train was dead on time all throughout the trip with an on time arrival.
Something else I noticed was the huge amount for freight around, it seemed as though every warehouse on the way had a rail connection with a few wagons there waiting to be collected.
I think I was lucky, but every train was full but it didn't feel rammed as it does elsewhere.
Anyway here are the pictures!
Beast! Sounded good too
Caltrain at San Jose waiting to form service to San Francisco
Do you know the way to San Jose?
Bus that took me across the bay bridge from the Amtrak Station
Vintage tram car
Caltrain that brought me from San Francisco to Palo Alto
Timetable for Capital corridor
Thanks for reading
Most of these trips are just routine, but, I decided to do a trip report for this one as it contains some rail based trips.
I was invited by Dubai Government to attend a week long trip to San Francisco to visit companies in Silicone Valley, the purpose of the trip is to visit the likes go Google, Uber etc and look at their X units (Disruptive Innovation).
So, at 6am on Saturday 22nd April an SMS message from Emirates informed me my chauffeur was waiting to collect me, 20 minutes later I was deposited outside the First Class check-in desks and my bags were whisked away from me.
A quick breakfast in the lounge and I was all ready to board EK225 to San Francisco, todays steed was A380 A6-EET.
There was no upgrade for me today, so I settled into seat 25A in Business Class for the next 16 hours.
This was one really long flight, three weeks ago I had a flight to Chicago which was of similar length, however this one really dragged.
If you have ever travelled First or Business Class on Emirates, then you know there is a bar at the back of the plane, I spent about 3 hours here talking to the flight crew before going back to my seat and eating dinner and watching a couple of movies.
Todays route took us right over the North Pole and I was looking forward to looking down as we crossed the ice, unfortunately there was a lot of cloud and could not see anything.
Our route across the pole
Moving map of journey
Moving map of journey
Finally after nearly 16 hours we touched down in SFO and I made my way to my hotel in Palo Alto and arrived about 5pm local time.
Sunday was a free day and jet lag kicked in big time and I was awake by 4am, so I decided to get out of bed and see if I could do some train trips around the area.
After a few minutes searching I realised I was 20 minutes away fro San Jose so decided to plan a day from there.
The plan was, Uber to San Jose, Amtrak Capital Corridor to Sacramento, quick turnaround and back to Emeyville for the Amtrak bus to San Francisco. Once in the city I would take a vintage tram over to 4th and King and get the Caltrain back to Palo Alto.
I will post some pictures below, however some things that really impressed me, Amtrak was a double decker coach where most people were directed upstairs, the seats were huge compared to the the UK and every seat lined up with a window.
There was a cafe coach that was opened from 5 minutes before departure from San Jose to arrival in Sacramento and the food was cheap and good!
Also there were an amazing amount of announcements that were clear and friendly, plenty of good information given and the conductor was continually coming through the coach speaking to people, very friendly and very proactive.
Although the journey from San Jose to Sacramento is short compare to other American rail journeys, the train was dead on time all throughout the trip with an on time arrival.
Something else I noticed was the huge amount for freight around, it seemed as though every warehouse on the way had a rail connection with a few wagons there waiting to be collected.
I think I was lucky, but every train was full but it didn't feel rammed as it does elsewhere.
Anyway here are the pictures!
Beast! Sounded good too
Caltrain at San Jose waiting to form service to San Francisco
Do you know the way to San Jose?
Bus that took me across the bay bridge from the Amtrak Station
Vintage tram car
Caltrain that brought me from San Francisco to Palo Alto
Timetable for Capital corridor
Thanks for reading
