I’m writing this sat in Monterey (home of the cheese) but we have spent most of the day in San Jose. Now before today all I really knew about it was Dionne Warwick needed directions there (presumably she didn’t have a sat nav or knew about google maps). Today we went to the science museum (which seemed to have a bias towards computing and was founded by a Mr Hewlett and a Mr Packard). It’s a great museum and the IMAX dome sphere thing is truly awesome (as people keep saying here when they really mean “adequate”). Afterwards we thought we’d have a look around town.

The museum was near the convention centre in downtown and it was, to say the least, quiet. However quite often Convention Centres are in out of the way places and it was the weekend so perhaps that as why it as so quiet. We got a map, had a look and realised that actually we were just a couple of streets away from the main historical area. So off we went to explore.

Now San Jose has a lot going for it. It has nice streets (see pic below) it has nice trams (see previous blog) but what it lacks are people. The streets were deserted. Now we are used to being close to the action but missing it completely. We went to Paris once, went into the Pompidou Centre and noticed they were setting up barriers. When we came out we found that we had missed the Tour de France. Bummer.

But this was different. There were just no people out on a Saturday afternoon. I assume that the young people were eating their Greggs pasties down at the beach but there weren’t even old people. Even the beggars were begging off each other because there were no people with money to beg off. We walked the entire city centre and saw hardly anyone.

So San Jose, we like your streets, shops and museums but your centre is really eerie with no one about. Oh and if anyone sees Dionne, just tell her San Jose is just off Highway 880. But don’t go on a Saturday afternoon.