San Francisco



Tuesday

Arrived in San Francisco around lunch time so we had the afternoon to get our bearings. We took the tram from just outside the hotel down to the harbour. There was a strong wind blowing off the sea which made it remarkably pleasant. In the sun it is very pleasant but in the shade it could be quite cold, this did not stop us walking along the harbour looking out to Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge (which is red in colour) and had the tops of its towers hidden by cloud. We walked along to Pier 39 to see where the trips around the bay and to Alcratraza run from and to find  food.There are plenty of sea food restaurants and take aways so it was easy to find food we all enjoy. Although fish is not cheap.

Wednesday

We arrived at pier 33 to see if we could get on a trip to Alcatraz having not been able to book online before we left. Only to find out no trips available till 9th August but maybe the possiblity of returned tickets at 8am tomorrow, so a very early start for me tomorrow to try and get tickets.

Instead we took a trip around "The Bay", we got to go out under the Golden gate and also under  "Bay bridge" with dolphin swimming along side, although the sun was out  the cool wind was still pleasent. Next on our must do list was a ride on the famous San Francisco "Cable cars" the ones that run up and down the hills made famous by numerous "Dirty Harry" and other cop movies with cars leaping off the humps in the road. We had dinner at a restaurant on fisherman's wharf and then back to catch the cable car to Union Square with peopl hanging off the side as it was full. The queue for the ride back was very long and the wind changed from being cool to freezing, we complain about the weather at home but the locals say this is common for this time of year. It nevers says this in any of the tourist books.

Alcatraz with  two possible inmates?

Golden gate with cloud

The girls enjoying the boat ride

Alcatraz (the rock)

The city from the water

The girls with the Cable Car

Alison enjoying the Cable car ride

Golden gate up close