Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Carmel Day 2 - The walking tour

We reached Carmel in  the pitch dark, so we couldn’t see anything. Next morning when I woke up and look through the glass door of the balcony. I could see endless the deep blue ocean covered with gray clouds hovering over the horizon.




Anyway, we wanted to take walking tour around the town, but  we didn’t know from where to start. So, we went to the hotel office, the lady there suggested going to the visitors center, which was in a beautiful mall.


The lady in the visitor center gave us a detailed map, and as well as the list of fairy tale houses. She told that the little town was within one square mile,so better to walk around. Luckily we didn’t take the car with us. We readily planned to go towards the ocean first , then while coming back we would visit the other little places. 


Our hotel was just outside the downtown. The specialty of the town, that most of the building were maintaing their facades. The way they were built early twentieth century still look the same, but inside everything had been changed. Our first stop was the furniture shop.The shop was nothing but another normal furniture shop. However it was actually the dairy farm dated back when it was developing, and it was a little town indeed , rather than tourist destination.

The furniture shop

 Next stop was the drug store, but what was so special? Actually the drug store changed to a different shop, most probably an art gallery, but the original sign was still kept on the wall. When the city decide to take down all the big facade, but they kept the name of the drug store for some unknown reason. 



The town had numerous hidden passages. Those hidden passages were actually lanes and by lanes with the blocks. It is difficult to see those lanes, but you have to search to find those hidden lanes. Some of the lanes would take you through the blocks to the other sides.  The two sides of those lanes had beautiful shops, art galleries, and beautiful other things. One of them was Secret Garden. I would rather write about it in another post.We went most of the lanes. Most of them leads to the other side of the blocks, but some of them leads to the entrance of the some cozy restaurants, even some of them leads to the entrance of private residence. 

Murphy's house


We went to the Murphy’s house, which was built in 1902. Murphy was 19 years old when he built the house. Most of the building in downtown are built by Murphy.

Mr. and Mrs. Murphy

 After visiting the Murphy’s house we felt hungry. After searching we found out one French restaurant named Porta Bella. The food was scrumptious.
After having food, again we started our walking tour. Then we started walking towards to ocean side.Each and very houses on the ocean side were extremely beautiful, and very much unique in their own way. All the houses in carmel had some different ouch, which made them district from other houses in rest of California. On the top of that, unlike other parts of California, Carmel was full of greenery. With beautiful green front yards, the hilly land, the old houses, and could weather gave carmel a fairy tale environment. It was very much like Bibury Village in UK. Anyway, after strolling around the ocean side again we came back to the downtown. I really didn’t know the rout, by which we strolled, I just depended on Mr. Man. 


 One of the building in our list was L’Auberge. L’Auberge was nothing but another beautiful inn. 


However, it had a little history. It was first apartment building in Carmel, which was actually built for artists. Then again we started walking and reached Church of the Wayfayer. It was most probably first built in 1903. On the opposite was Cypress Inn. That in was built in completely Mediterranean style. 


Again we started strolling again. We reached another beautiful mall. My son wanted to go a Christmas shop. Each and every decorations were extremely beautiful but too expensive.
Again we came to the visitor center from where we started our walking tour. Our next destination was fairy tale houses.

   ....to be continued.

34 comments:

Annie's Journal said...

Very pretty place:) Thanks for sharing this Krishna.

Margaret D said...

What a sweet town.
Thanks for sharing.

Polly said...

What a lovely tour and beautiful photos. I visited Carmel a long time ago, it is a pretty town. Clint Eastwood (very famous actor, you might be too young to remember him) was the mayor for a few years :-)

Irreplaceable_fashion said...

The photos are amazing, great details:)
kisses:*

Sandi said...

A very pretty area!

At first glance, I thought your title said camel. I thought you'd gone to the zoo!

Dicky Bird said...

Lovely building!

La Table De Nana said...

You are showing me parts of Carmel others have not shared:) Thanks!

Svetlana said...

So interesting walking you have recently had! The photo is beautiful!
http://witty-sweety.blogspot.com

JoJo said...

Aren't those lanes and passages the best? I wish I could go back there and take more pics. The last time I went was long before digital photography. The first time I visited in the 80s, Clint Eastwood still owned 'The Hog's Breath Inn' and was the Mayor.

krishna said...

ha ha ha

Beauty Unearthly said...

What a beautiful place! xx

Lisa said...

Wow, what gorgeous pictures!! That first one with the view of the ocean is spectacular!! What a beautiful place to visit!! Have a great day!! Big hugs :)

Lisa
A Mermaid's Crafts

Cynthia said...

What an interesting walking tour. All the homes are different and wouldn't it be interesting to see the insides as well? You have been doing quite a bit of sightseeing already in the new year.

Jeanie said...

Krishna, this is a beautiful trip -- I can imagine you having a terrific time. I've been to Carmel -- ages ago. And I regret to say we didn't do this walking tour you did. I wish now so very much that we had.

Prims By The Water said...

How quaint those little houses are! Janice

Carolina G. Ticala said...

Preciosas fotos! Muchas gracias por tu comentario en mi blog! Feliz fin de semana! ♥️♥️♥️

eileeninmd said...

Hello, I love the cute houses and what a great walking tour. I remember going into some of the shops. It is a beautiful place to visit. Happy Friday, enjoy your weekend!

Crystal Grandeur said...

Lovely images. Calm and a quite place. Loved going through your post. By the way your name sounds Indian. I am from India. Regards Sujatha:)

Reckless diary by Anya Dryagina said...

Amazing post and fantastic photos dear!
www.recklessdiary.ru

Sakuranko said...

Oh very amazing photos darling
Thanks for share
xx

Julie said...

Hello Krishna, how wonderful! What a gorgeous little town with such quaint buildings & brickwork. I very much enjoyed all your photos. Thanks for sharing.

♥ Łucja-Maria ♥ said...

Hello Krishna!
Great relationship and beautiful photos.
I admire the architecture of houses and gardens. I love greenery.
Thank you for this wonderful post.
Greetings from Poland.
Lucja

Carolina G. Ticala said...

Un post muy interesante! Saludos ♥️♥️♥️

DIMI said...

Hello dear Krishna!
What a great post!
Such a lovely place to visit!
I like the cute houses and the architecture of the buildings!
Thank you for sharing and for visiting my post! I'm following you now!
Greetings from Greece!
Have a happy Sunday!
Dimi...

Sirpa said...

Very interesting post from the wonderful city with great photos!
Greetings.

Kathy Leonia said...

i love your photos:)

shwet said...

Lovely place and beautiful pictures. I wish i can stay there for ever.
https://clickbystyle.blogspot.in/

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Krishna,
Lovely visit and stay.
I've only been there for a visit, briefly and sure would love to stroll around again with more time on hand!
Hugs,
Mariette

Sandra said...

Olá, lindas imagens. Feliz semana.

Magic Love Crow said...

A very pretty town!! Thank you for sharing all these gorgeous photos and sharing some of the history! Big Hugs!

Carola Bartz said...

Isn't Carmel a beautiful little place?
Thank you for the book recommendation. I put "The Glass Palace" on my list, it sounds like a very interesting read.

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson said...

Oh boy does this bring back memories! Hubby and I spent a week there in June. We stayed at a place just a block and a half up from the beach. We did lots of walking and saw the Fairy Tale houses. Such a fun place!
hugs,
Jann

Nancy Chan said...

The place is beautiful and your have taken very nice pictures to share with us. Love the buildings too!

wisps of words said...

Oh yes, I remember staying in a place, way up a hill. So we had lovely ocean views.

And the little lanes, behind main street... Delightful. But we did not see as much as you did. -sigh- Did not see the houses. -pout- :-)

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