Crowne Plaza Hotel Concord

... around the bay that i had noticed the night before in the foyet, with the added bonus of a bit of student discount i was in and along with the fact that we needed to take a cable car to get there, Elena was sold as well. I imagine that taking the cable car for the first time is an experience that everyone has to remember in San Francisco, its just so incomparable to anything i had done before. We caught the thing from just outside the hostel which was the second stop on ...

... real pizza. I am such a snob when it comes to pizza. It was yummy though. I drank my first red bull, as I have been feeling extremely tired recently. Unfortunately, I did not feel any more awake after ingesting it. It did taste good though. As Jessie says, like a liquid cherry sweet tart. We came across a super cool second hand clothing store. Andy, wish ...

... Then it was time to face the walk back. Although this would be much shorter in distance, since we had already done 3 sides of a square, it was clearly going to be more strenuous. Whereas, until now, we had meandered downhill and then along the flat of the waterfront, we were presently faced with one of San Francisco's mighty hills. The first section was so steep it didn't seem plausible that houses had been built along the road or that cars or the trolley ...

... for New Zealand, where we hope to strap some bikes to the back of a van!! En route to the park we hopped off the bus early and wandered through Haight Ashbury, an old hippy centre during the 60's, fairly A typical of areas in other cities we've seen, plenty of smoking shops, second hand thrift shops with a few Tat Shops (ahem Souvenir Shops) thrown in for good measure - there was some good graffiti though. Prior to setting off for Yosemite there was an attempt at sending a package ...

... both pretty tired so hopefully we can sleep on the plane. Vietnam is 14hrs ahead of our time and also across the international date line. We leave here at 0120 on May 16th and will arrive there at 1020 on May 17th ... hate that we lose a day but at least we get it back when we come home. Off we goooooooooooooooo

... along the front. We stopped at a fishing pier for a while watching the ships and getting some daft looking sunburn lines arond our sunglasses. That night was the highlight of San Francisco. We went to Alcatraz, the boat ride over was beautiful it was still sunny. We walked all through the main prison building on an Audio tour. We got to see the cells and the dining room and all the various areas and heard lots of stories from reformed prisoners and guards about their time ...

... again, and I got the window seat that I'd asked for, but I spent most of the time comforting my sister; she complained the whole flight that her ears hurt and how she wanted to go home. She was seven at the time. My grandfather slept during the flight and my mother pretended to, so it was mostly my job to entertain Julia. On arriving in San Francisco, we were greeted by my mother's second cousin, Deano, who, embarrassingly enough, my mother was dating at the time and ...

... This is Chuck. Now it's my turn to offer thank you's. First and foremost, my most heartfelt thanks go to my traveling companion, mentor, and dearest friend Ho-Ki. It has been near on to two years ago that Ho-Ki, over dim sum at the Yank Sing restaurant in San Francisco, first broached the idea of a rail trip from London to Hong Kong. Therefore, he was responsible for planting the seed that both of us nourished into reality, so he ...

... sauce whereas Micki and I got the medium sauce. Wow, that was spicy hot! Even the kids' sauce had a kick! I don't think I could have done the extra hot sauce. Overall we all had a very good meal except for Micki who got a couscous chicken salad that was over done with olives and had a poor glass of Sangria. After that we worked our way back to our apartment and arrive a bit after 11:00. The next day the girls slept in to 10:00 am, so it was a slow start getting back to London. We ...

... passed the point of re-washing socks or underwear set aside for the trip just because he's paraded around the house with them in his mouth for half an hour. Hmmm, makes me wonder how many other travelers manage to pack travel clothes that have been dog-slimed well before the trip starts. And when you're ready to go, well, he's ready to go too, but we draw the line at him driving (he's too eratic, he never checks the rearview ...