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Global Gypsy | |
Silicon Valley - it's more than just micro chips and computer geeks
I'm kicking myself that I'm indoors writing this while the sun is
shining outside. It's another gorgeous sunny day here in
The first impressions of Palo
Alto is that it's a sleepy little town. Not just because everyone drives at
the 25 miles per hour speed limit but because all the shops are these old
looking one storey buildings built decades ago. There aren't a lot of tall
buildings around - not what you'd expect for a place that's famous for being
But spend a few days here and you'll notice that people drive slowly because there are sooooo many joggers, pedestrians and cyclists on the street. Many people ride to work, take their kids in these little bubble buggies attached to the back of their bikes to school and basically do all their groceries on the two wheels. I've not seen so many bike shops in a long time.
And though with the recent dot.com boom, I sense that residents
still like to keep the flavor of the place and not ruin it's small town charms.
They have a policy of not widening the roads. Instead they've put in technology
in the traffic lights time it so that traffic will run as smoothly as possible
depending on the amount of cars present. (smart huh?). As for the lack of tall
buildings, I realise they probably did not want to
ruin the tree line. I was surprised to see a farm (yep complete with animals)
next to the headquarters of SAP
Figure 1 - SAP
Figure 2 - horses next to SAP - I wonder what they're thinking
I had lunch at the SAP 'cafeteria' today and it was wonderful.
There's a patio outside that gives you views of the rolling hills. Inside the
cafeteria is bright with floor to ceiling windows and all the chairs are Arne
Jacobsen's Series 7 chairs. (our fave dining
chair). The food is so healthy as well. There's a huge section of fresh salads
and sandwiches (roasted eggplant, roast beef, hams, different cheeses etc etc), two hot food sections and even the 'junk' food like
burgers are all made to order. Best of all the food is free or subsidised. You can have all the drinks, yoghurt, fruit and
ice cream you can ever want!
We're staying at a place called Dinah's Garden Hotel. It's nothing
special from the front. In fact it looks like a two storey motel from the 50s.
There's a Hawaiian restaurant with a tiki lounge in
the back. But the place is surrounded by old bonsais, tropical flowers and
shady trees. Our room is filled with old 60s/70s furniture. Not even the cool
Mid Century Modern stuff but more like the stuff you see on the Brady Bunch or
from a garage sale at an old person's house. Each room has different furniture
and artwork. But all rooms have fast T1 high speed internet access, 500 thread
count sheets, Molten Brown soaps and shampoos, fresh fruit each day and evening
chocolates. The hotel certainly exudes character!
Figure 3 - Dinah's garden hotel
Figure 4: outside our hotel room
Downtown
Figure 5 - the nicest
Borders - see the lovely courtyard before you enter?
Figure 6 - window shopping in downtown Palo Alto
There's a lot of wealth here but it's not blatant like other parts of theAcross from the main downtown strip is the world's second largest
university -
Figure 7 - Spanish Renaissance architecture - OK it's me
trying to be artistic!!
Figure 8 -
Figure 9 -
Figure 10: Tower at Stanford
Houses are also super expensive. I got excited over a 4 bedroom
house for $350 000 but was quickly mistaken because I had missed a zero in
there. $3.5 million for a nice home. *double gulp*. Most 'decent' homes I'm
told are about $1 million and we're only talking about 2 bedroom cottages. 1
bedroom apartments go for about $6-800k. I thought
Now if only we can afford it...
Cheryl Collett
June 2005
Cheryl