After the Tottenham match ended in a 0-0 draw, I cycled down the Alameda (part of El Camino Real, I believe, and an interesting looking road) towards downtown San Jose. I’d never been to San Jose, so was looking forwrad to doing a little afternoon sketching around what is in fact one of California’s largest cities. Wow, was I underwhelmed. Now San Jose isn’t bad, it’s not all run down or shady or full of junkies and hobos and boarded up shops, like a lot of cities, no it wasn’t like that at all. But it’s just that, downtown on a Saturday afternoon, and it was dead, there seemed to be nobody about. There were some interesting buildings, but mostly it was just tech company HQs and convention centers, or at least it felt like that. I headed towards what little bustle there was, but just couldn’t feel any heart, despite signs telling me of all the history here. It was like the city was trying to get people interested, but they were all at the Mall. There were lots of night clubs; I’m sure this place is a lot busier after dark, but something told me I probably wouldn’t want to be here after dark too. I drew a vaguely interesting building at the corner of 2nd Street (hey, we have one of those!), which I think was also some sort of nightclub or bar, called Toons (probably not a hangout for of Newcastle fans). I wasn’t all that into it though, and so decided to leave early, and cycled back to the station. I’m sure that San Jose has other, more charming areas (Santa Clara for example seemed very nice, and I liked the Alameda), but downtown just didn’t do it for me. Still, at least I finally saw another part of my adopted state, and the Amtrak journey down to the South Bay is inspiring.
Before catching my train, I grabbed another sketch, powerlines and a meat sign. It was hot, and I had a long journey back to Davis.
petescully 