dare2go

San Francisco


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Friday began with another World Cup match on television - this time Germany versus Argentina. Then we left again for the city. Our initial plan was to go to the Golden Gate Park and hire bicycles to explore it. First we made a stop at the visitor centre to gather information on public transport to the sights. They provided a really great 'Public Transportation Guide' which listed all the sights you might want to visit with directions to use the public transport system to get there from Market Street. The public transport system consists of both diesel and electric buses, historic and modern streetcars as well as the world famous cable cars. For $11 you can get a day pass for unlimited use of all of them (or $18 for 3 days - even better value if you're staying this long). The cable cars are rather expensive in the meantime - $5 per trip - so this day pass is worth it if you want to use them and hop on and off.
To reach the Golden Gate Park, we had to take a bus the length of Haight Street. In the words of the Lonely Planet Guide, 'This is still a groovy part of town'! And it has been since the 'Summer of Love' in 1967. It was interesting to ride and later walk down this street and still sense the presence of the alternative lifestyle in its 21st century incarnation. We hired bicycles opposite the park and headed off into the park, expecting to find bicycle tracks to choose from. What we found were roadways and paths - almost all paths with a 'no bicycles' sign on them. It seems that through the park, cyclists are expected to share the road with the cars. This was not what we expected so we took the bikes back and after walking a while on Haight Street caught the bus back to Market Street.
Our next goal was to ride a cable car from Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf. We arrived at the Powell Street turnaround, where they manually turn around the cars to send them up the hill again, and found a queue of several hundred people - each car takes maybe 20-30 passengers - and about 5 cars waiting to be turned. We started to walk up the street and found a friendly bicycle policeman who was talking to a cable car driver. We asked what the hold-up was and they didn't seem to know, just something to do with it being peak hour and Friday and the beginning of a long weekend. But we did notice an empty car go past us up the hill. The policeman explained that they sent empty ones for the people waiting further along the route and then suggested that if we walked up a block, we would be sure to get a seat on the next empty one they sent. We took his advice and got a great seat on the outside of the next empty car that came along.
Riding a cable car is an amazing experience - don't miss it if you are in San Francisco. I did it last time and I'm glad I did it again this time. We rode as far as the Cable Car Museum, which I hadn't been to before. This is not really a museum in the true sense because it is housed in the Cable Car Barn, where all the cars come to 'sleep'! And it also contains the machinery that keeps the cables moving for the cars to hook onto and be pulled up San Francisco's very steep streets. It was absolutely fascinating. There are also several historic and restored cars to see and of course a gift shop, but the most fascinating thing is actually seeing and learning how these amazing things work. They were developed in San Francisco in 1872 by a wire rope manufacturer, who was prompted to action by seeing horses suffering in the horse drawn streetcars of the time.
We left the museum and hopped on the next car to come along, still heading toward Fisherman's Wharf. This time we were standing up inside and didn't get quite such a good view of the outside world, but Juergen suddenly said we should get out. We were at the top of the world famous part of Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world! Everyone has seen it in more than one movie! It is interesting to walk down the stairs to the bottom and wonder about the people who actually live on this street. The view from the bottom is actually more spectacular than from the top and you can see the gardens in all their glory.
From there we walked the rest of the way to Fisherman's Wharf, past some really interesting houses (San Francisco is full of them) and a really good view of Alcatraz Island. Fisherman's Wharf is of course like all tourist areas - not very interesting. But I'd been there in 1979 and wanted to see it again. We did find a really nice place to eat - Boudin at the Wharf. It is a bakery downstairs and you can watch the sourdough bread being made through huge glass windows. They also have a retail outlet and a snack bar downstairs. Upstairs is a bar and restaurant, so we decided to try our luck eating out again. We were given a table by a window overlooking the Bay and also an assurance that Juergen could have a garlic-free pizza. The food was good, the wine also, and the service was exceptional. It was one of our most enjoyable eating out experiences so far. Since we were quite a walk from the cable car stop, we decided we might as well complete our public transport San Francisco style experience with a ride on one of the historic streetcars. It took us around the edge of the bay and then all the way down Market Street. Despite being very crowded, we eventually got a seat and enjoyed the experience overall. We hopped on the BART and headed 'home'.
On Sunday morning we decided we had sampled enough of San Francisco and decided to head north. We stayed around long enough to watch the Soccer - this time England versus Portugal - and to write a few more emails (didn't want to waste free internet access!). We left right on checkout time (11.00) and went to a Trader Joe's we'd discovered from the bus window, and stocked up on our favourite items from this supermarket. Then we drove through the smaller southern cities and into San Francisco towards our last experience of the city - The Golden Gate Bridge. We had to cross it to continue our journey, but right before you drive onto it there is a vista point. There wasn't a great vista to be had since the fog that this city is famous for was putting on a good show! But we did manage to get a few photos of the famous bridge where you can at least recognise it! We then drove over the bridge and continued our journey northwards.