Arealhighlander's travel blogs:
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Day 3 San Francisco & Alcatraz
Entry 6 of 22 | show all | print this entry |
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Breakfast was at Lori's Diner just down the road on Powell. We had a full breakfast with pancakes, has bropwn, bacon, eggs, the never ending cup of coffee etc. The food was OK but not brilliant, the hash browns were not very good, soggy and not cooked properly.
We then met a San Franciscan icon - or two of them. These two old ladies were inside a restaurant having their photo taken by some people, they are well in their 70's and were dressed and made up alike. I thought they looked familiar and had a search on Google later on and found they even have their own Wikipedia entry. The San Francisco Twins are apparently frequently seen around this area of town.
We went down to the start of the cable car ride and bought our 3 day MUNI passes ($18 each). It is well worth it considering one ride on the cable cars is $5 alone. The cards can start when you want, you just scratch off the month and dates that you with to use it as long as they run consecutively. We rode the cable car on the Powel-Hyde line with some spectacular views down the hill towards the piers and Alcatraz. It was a hair raising experience holding onto the outside while videoing the journey!
We took a wander along the piers and along the way visited the USS Pampanito for £11 each. This is a WW2 submarine which is set up as a walk through exhibition. It was quite interesting and I cannot imagine what it must have been like to live in such a confined area with so many others for long trips at sea, And then the risk of being sunk by the Japanese.
We then continued along to the (in)famous tourist trap that is Pier 39. This is always full of tourists, but it's recommended if you do want to buy any tourist tat, try elsewhere in the city first as the prices are about 25% higher here. It was quite early in the morning, (9.30am) and the crowds hadn't built too much by then. There are shops, restaurants, clam chowder by the gallon, boat trips, bus trips, merry go rounds, you name it.
The seals that have made a home for themselves at the end of the pier were loud and smelly as always, Lazing in the sun, fighting in the water, flopping over each other battling for the best place to snooze and soak up some rays. The early morning fog had burnt off by then but it was still lurking out in the Bay. I had double layered today with a t shirt and jumper, and as we moved about the jumper came on and off.
We continued along the pier and then cut inland to find the Powell-Mason cable car, on the way we passed a Walgreens and bought some touristy bits and supplies to take back to the room.
The cable cars are always busy but the wait was only about 15 minutes. We got back to the hotel about 1230, dropped off our stuff and met up with Beth and Andrew who is my sister in laws cousins. Andrew moved over here many years ago from the Western Isles.
We walked through Chinatown and North Beach. It was great to see small micro societies going on in such a big city. In Chinatown its like being in a different country, everything was in Chinese, little English was spoken, and then as soon as you get into the Italian area of North Beach it was all pasta, pizza, Italian restaurants and coffee bars. We stopped for a beer at Vesuvio which is beside the famous City Lights bookstore where I had my first Anchor Steam beer which was very nice.
We continued our walk round North Beach and ended up having pizza at Golden Boy pizza on Green Street. Outside it doesn't look like much, but it is one of these local eateries with amazingly tasty pizza by the slice (or slab if you are REALLY hungry or there are a lot of you) followed by another walk down North Beach for a cup of coffee and slice of Pecan Pie, yum.
I really wish we had taken pedometers with us, as it would be interesting to know how many miles a day we are walking.
Evening time and it was time for our expedition out to Alcatraz Island. Unfortunately the weather which had been superb at lunchtime had turned to engulf the whole area with fog so bad that you could no longer see Alcatraz. We joined the queue for the boat at 1745. There are about 300 tourists per boat, they take your photo when you go on in the hope you will pay $22 for 2 copies on completion of the cruise. I can't see how this is very environmentally friendly as few pay meaning all these photos just get dumped.
The trip out was about 15 minutes, the fog was getting denser all the time. We arrived and got split into groups of about 40 people with one group leader from the Park Rangers. She talked us through the history of Alcatraz as we made our way up the rather steep slopes to enter the main building. On entry everyone was issued with a headset and a player for the Audio tour. The tour is very good, its narrated by ex-prison inmates and officers and as you walk around the prison, they tell the story of what it was like not only for the inmates but also the staff that ran it.
It is very atmospheric and the few times you are in an area of the prison on your own (difficult when each tour is 300 people!) you get the sense of isolation of the place. On completion of the tour you can walk back through any open parts of the prison and buildings.
They also have short talks and demonstrations such as how the cell locking system worked, the escapes that were attempted etc.
The two ferries back are at 2040 and 2125 (the last ferry). After the tour I approached one of the Rangers, Sharlene, and asked her if there would be any basement tours. "How did you hear about them, was it on the Internet?" she daid. I just said, might have been :)
She laughed and checked a schedule. She said see me back here at 2015 and I'll take you down. Cool! We had been planning on going back on the earlier ferry but decided it was too good to miss. The fog was getting thicker and the temperature colder, I was glad I took a jumper AND jacket.
At 2015 we went to find Sharlene and she took us to one of the corners of the main cell area and took us through a locked caged area, another couple were going past at the time (they were actually looking for the toilet!) and she asked them if they wanted to go, which they did. We went along past some of the cells being refurbished and collected hard hats. Two more women appeared at the caged door and asked what was going on and they got invited to join as well, so there were 6 of us. Unfortunately one of the other women was a Glaswegian who was olne of these who whispers louder than most people talk, and spent most of the time going "oh my god. My husband won't believe me, oh my god". Annoying.
Sharlene led us down to the level below the main cell area. This area is basically the moat and sub level which used to run around the fortress that was originally on this site long before the prison was built. There was no light apart from the Rangers torch. She showed us areas that used to be used as isolation areas where prisoners would be shackled up in the dark. They had etched their initials, prisoner number and a rouigh calendar of days spent in the walls.
There were other areas that were rooms used by Irish women who used to cool, clean etc. at the fortress. It was great to get to see an area and part of history not normally seen by people. We all thanked Sharlene profusely for the additional tour.
At 2125 we all headxed off the island, along with all the Rangers apart from one poor sod who stays as night watchman - better him than me!
We went down to the Ferry building for food at the Slanted Door but as it was after 2200 and a Sunday we were too late. We finally had a great pizza at Uncle Vito's pizza on Powell/Bush just along from the hotel.
Finally, it was time for bed.
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