The film & literature round

Today we stash Denise and Bill's folding bikes in the back of the car and head south. Our first stop is San Juan Bautista, one of the earliest of the missions founded by Spanish colonists trying to convert the heathen, believing they'd be easier to control if they were God-fearing. This particular mission was used for key scenes in Vertigo – Hitchcock had a ranch nearby – and in the summer they host outdoor screenings of the film.
There's a mission bell at the entrance, of the type made famous by the Eagles in Hotel California, but positioned originally to mark the route from mission to mission on the coast's El Camino Real (Royal Road).

We've timed it well. There's a living-history day going on so the lawn at the heart of the mission is busy with volunteers demonstrating traditional skills. The trapper shows off his conquests...
The seamstress demonstrates old-school embroidery and lacemaking, and models a few pieces she prepared earlier... 

The hurdy-gurdy man entertains with tuneful ditties, including versions of Over The Sea To Skye and She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain. We Scots can't help singing along... 
The blacksmith fashions iron hearts out of old horseshoes and keeps up a steady stream of banter while his assistant pumps the bellows into the fire...

There's a saloon complete with a jolly wench and a singer playing tunes on a guitar. 

We have ginger beers and as I'm wandering around with my drink I notice a picture of Robert Burns, here promoting cigars. He gets everywhere.

Driving south we pass fields with these giant tin people dotted about. The top of my head would line up roughly with this chap's cabbages (so to speak). I have no idea what they are for or why they are here. 

We arrive in the Monterey bay area where it's a bit too windy to start our bike ride where we'd planned but before we move on we take a quick look at the rock pools and find a girl enjoying her Quinceañera with a posse of pals. This is the coming-of-age that hispanic girls celebrate at 15, often in elaborate outfits and at great expanse. The birthday girl is the one in the absinthe-green meringue-style frock and they are racing back to the white stretch limo waiting by the beach.

The bike ride follows an old railway line in and out of Monterey, once California's largest and most bustling town thanks to its fishing and canning industries.
The Chinese started the canning industry here and before too long it attracted casual workers from all over the USA. Cannery Row itself, now more tourist mecca than hive of industry, was also the setting for one of John Steinbeck's best known short stories. 

Our biking route is lined with tiled plaques and street art commemorating the lives of past citizens, alongside Steinbeck quotes and depictions of his characters. 

'The cannery whistles scream and all over the town men and women scramble into their clothes and come running down to the row to go to work... The canneries rumble and rattle and squeak until the last fish is cleaned and cut and cooked and canned and then the whistles scream again and the dripping, smelly, tired Wops and Chinamen and Polaks, men and women, straggle out and droop their ways up the hill into the town and Cannery Row becomes itself again – quiet and magical.' John Steinbeck, Cannery Row.

We cycle past a beach crowded with seals basking with their young pups. The seals spend a month feeding their young and teaching them to hunt so they can be weaned and go back to the water. The section of the shore where they're doing this is temporarily closed to the public. We watch through a mesh wire fence before folding up our Bromptons and driving home. As bike rides go, it's been most informative.