Hey man from San Francisco
We were quite overawed to be in America but were surprised that in some ways it is not that different to the UK (maybe because England has become so americanised) - infact all of the places we have visited have been more familiar than imagined - don't know what I expected - another planet? Also, the majority of the Americans we met were very friendly and helpful - but we couldn't work out if this was just because they wanted a tip - you have to tip everyone it seems, and that in addition to the tax which they don't put onto prices displayed in shops, adds about 25% to any expenditure. We had a great time despite the weather, which on most days was very cold with bouts of extremely heavy rain. However, we had a lovely day when we went to visit Alcatraz, which was the highlight of our time in SF. The views of the city across the bay are amazing - the sky scrapers sparkling in the sunlight and the characteristic roller coaster streets soaring up the hills.
Alcatraz itself was chillingly atmospheric - with an excellent audio tour including voices of some of the inmates. Al Capone's picture stared down intimidatingly from the wall! We went in a couple of the cells - including the isolation ones - they were tiny with no privacy at all. Saw the holes in the back of the cells and the fake heads used in the famous escape. On our last day we went to the Golden Gate Bridge and went along to the first tower - we were going to walk across but it looked like a very long way. Afterwards we walked around the Golden Gate Park and went to the exquisite Japanese Tea Garden with beautiful bonsai trees, streams and the sweetest hump-back bridge!
We generally explored San Francisco's streets, including Lombard Street - the crookedest street in the world - 8 hair pin bends in about 60m (cars actually drive down it!); the old hippie district, Haight Ashbury (called Hashbury by the locals), where Angie wore her flowery jeans, but no flowers in her hair unfortunately; the Beat Generation area where we visited some of the original bars and saw the bookshop that started it all off; and Pier 39, which is a bit like Brighton Pier (lovely!) but has a good aquarium with an underwater tunnel. We travelled around the city on the famous 1920s cable cars which struggle up the steep inclines, leaving us to hang off the back in a daring fashion - what an excellent way to travel!
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