Sacramento

On leaving the hostel I could hear music just around the next building. On walking around it I found a festival of somekind going on. I'm not sure what the celebration/protest was as everything was in spanish but there was a circle of classic and 'pimped' American cars around the square. As things were starting to wind up I made my way down to Old Sacramento. It's is at the end of the town and went down there today to wander around the wooden board walks along the shop fronts. The whole area was a tourist trap with shops and cafés. There was a 'chip shop' which sold chips from around the world, apparently English chips come with curry, but not salt and vinegar, I did ask! On the side of the old town is the Sacramento River not much was moving on it apart from a turtle I saw near the edge trying in vein to climb over a round steel flood barrier, unfortunately it had given up and swam away before I could get my camera out. At the end of the board walk area was the Railway Museum so I went in to have a look. The museum shows a video to explain the beginnings of rail and its developments (surprisingly for the US acknowledging Stephenson and the Rocket) at the end of the video which was shown in a full size cinema the screen rose at the end of the room and cleverly the last shot on the screen had been recreated with the actual steam engine in a display in the museum. We went down the steps and out through the 'back of the cinema' and there was a guy there who took us on a tour of the most important parts of the museum before letting you wander at will. The museum it's self was about a third the size of the one at York but had some interesting trains and carriages to look at, One carriage cleverly fitted out with piston rams under it, and the windows were 'blacked out'. Once on it with the sound effects played through it, it actually felt like you were on a moving train, every so often a level crossing would 'wizz by'. The train rocked and lights flashed passed the windows. A number of museum staff were 'in character' on the carriage an they explained the layout of the sleeper and what it was like to travel in it. I also came across an usual oil burning train which had been built with the drivers cab at the front of the loco, this was because of the smoke and fumes which were coming out of the chimney tended to choke (and suffocate!) the drivers if they were on 'normal' loco's when they went through the long tunnels over the Sierra Nevada. The other thing that caught my eye about this train was that it was No.4294 ( I can't explain this one but if you recognise it you'll understand!)
On the walk back to the Hostel I found another Brew pub and found they had a real hand pulled beer engine – AT LAST REAL BEER! The beer was called Irish Red and tasted excellent , it was a ruby read colour and not too hoppy or rich, however at over 6% it was rather potent Two pints was all I could dare manage having not had a decent meal all day! Walking back to the hostel I walked through the Capital Gardens at the back of the Capital Building (Sacramento is the Capital of California). The gardens are meticulosly kept and supposedly have one of every native of tree in Calefornia.It was also full of of couples having their wedding photo's taken!