Friday 20 July 2012

Fabulous San Francisco

We arrived late into San Francisco, getting to our hotel at about 11pm. After checking in, we - rather optimistically I initially thought - went in search of something to eat. The hotel receptionist, however, said that there should still be a few places open.

We found a busy diner open until midnight, so just made it at 11.45pm. I was actually quite hungry (a bit of a novelty for me) as Hawaiian Airlines do not serve gluten free meals, so all I had eaten that day was some fruit, yoghurt and a banana.

I had goats cheese salad and chips, Dave had a chicken dish. It was fun soaking up the atmosphere in an American diner.

We had arranged a tour around San Francisco, but that would not be until Saturday, so Friday was spent under our own steam walking around the city. As with Sydney after Phuket, we noticed the difference in temperature in San Francisco from Hawaii, it only being about 15 degrees compared to about 29 degrees.

We set off walking round San Fran, going to China Town, the largest outside China. Lots of different shops, I saw a t-shirt I liked and tried on an extra large, although I knew it would be tight just by looking at it, I guessed they might only sell to slim Chinese American girls! Shame as I really liked it.

We went onto North Beach, the Italian area, and found a nice restaurant for lunch, Dave having a pizza and myself having Parma ham and melon.

Prior to setting off on our walk, Dave had purchased two clipper cards which would enable to hop on and off cable buses, something you must do while in San Francisco.

We decided to do the two cable bus routes in their entirety. The hills in San Francisco are amazing, some 48 over an area of 49 square miles (a fact picked up from our tour the following day).

Its great fun on a cable bus, although a bit nippy if you are sitting on the outside! When we got off, we visited Grace Cathedral, built in 1928 and finished in 1964. It had a nice atmosphere.

After visiting the cathedral we went to get a cable bus going in the opposite direction. These turned out to be very busy, so we had to wait for a few to go past before we managed to get on one. This took us down to the pier, where there was an exhibition of boats, although we only walked past these. The pier also offered a good view of Alcatraz island.

There were quite a few stalls selling all kinds of things and Dave felt compelled to buy an Angry Birds woollen hat; although I mocked him, I ended up wearing it as I was so cold! Probably looked a twit, but I did feel warmer.

We then went to the Ghirardelli chocolate shop (we thought there was a factory there, but we were wrong) and Dave brought five different bars of their chocolate.

The queue for cable buses to go back was extremely long, so as our clipper passes were also good for buses, we caught a number 30, which took us back to our hotel.

That night, we went to John's Grill, literally just down the road from our hotel. It was heaving, so a popular place. Dave had clam chowder and a fish dish, I had a shrimp salad.

Up early next morning for our Urban Safari tour, which included tickets for Alcatraz. The vehicle was pretty amazing, black and white zebra striped, and where we sat was open to the elements in a sort of large trailer. Safari hats and blankets were provided!

Our guide was Eric, who was in his early 30s, and who obviously enjoyed his role as a guide. He was very chatty and knowledgeable. We went to another couple of hotels for pick-ups, although at one the group did not appear, even though one of them was there when we arrived. She disappeared to get the others and that was the last we saw of her. They did eventually join the group just in time for the Alcatraz trip.

Eric asked all the group (about 44 in total) their nationalities and there were a few, ranging from Brtish Columbia, Australians, Irish, English, New Zealand and obviously Americans.

Our driver, Mfalme, had the most amazing dreadlocks, which he has been growing for 30+ years. When not wound round his neck or piled on top of his head, they touched the floor!

Our first stop was the Palace of Fine Art, built in 1915 in the Greek style, looks like stone, but is actually made of concrete, although pretty impressive looking.

Our second stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, although actually painted international orange. Originally it was going to be painted grey or black with yellow stripes, I guess orange was the better option and apparently stands out better in the fog. A pretty impressive structure, although, I have to say I was more impressed with the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We got a chance to take lots of photos, and the weather had improved considerably from the previous day, so the view was pretty good.

We then went onto Twin Peaks (not where the tv show was filmed) which gave a panoramic view of San Francisco from a very high vantage point, views were quite stunning and by this time the weather was sunny. Again, lots of photos taken.

The next stop was for lunch. We stopped at a general store, that also sold soup, salads and sandwiches, we sat on wooden benches outside the store to eat. Dave was fascinated by Mfalme's dreadlocks, so I ended up with Dave taking a picture of me with him and his dreadlocks over my arm - I was not too keen to touch them, as not too sure how clean they were!

Mfalme also asked a friend of his to get him a coffee. This friend turned our to be completely naked, which was definitely different! He was completely at ease with himself and apparently it is not an offence to walk around naked in San Francisco.

After lunch, the next stop was to go to Alcatraz, this would also be the end of the Urban Safari Tour. Eric got the tickets and handed them out. We then said our goodbyes and thanks to Eric and Mfalme.

To get to the island is about a 15 minute boat trip and we were booked on the 2.50 pm boat. Once at the island and after a brief chat by one of the staff, we set off up the hill to do the audio tour of the cells, which is narrated by one of the guards who worked there.

Its a very stark place and quite intimidating, although because there were so many people there, this was a bit lost. Cells were 5 foot by 9 foot, really quite small, with just a toilet, bed, table and chair (only the bed was free standing, everything else was fixed into the wall.

The audio tour was essential and went through the history, including the story of three escapees, although whether they died while trying to swim to the mainland (their bodies were never found) or whether they did reach the mainland and got to South America is a mystery never to be resolved.

We spent well over two and a half hours there, and we got the penultimate ferry back to the mainland. In retrospect, going earlier in the day would have been better to allow us a bit more time to look around, but it was certainly worth the visit and very interesting. They do night visits, there are two ferries returning to the mainland around 8 and 9pm and I guess at night it would be very atmospheric even if there were crowds.

Once back on the mainland, we went to the top floor of the Hyatt Hotel. We had been there the previous day to enjoy the view, but it was a bit cloudy. The view was better this time, but not as clear as we thought it would be.

We decided to have dinner here before we collected our luggage from our hotel and make our way to the airport hotel prior to our early flight the next morning to New York.

On reflection, San Francisco has a quaint charm about it for a large city and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

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