Day 4 San Francisco Golden Gate bridge bike tour

  San Francisco, California, United States
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Breakfast was at Sears Fine Foods just down from the hotel. There is normally a queue out the door but we were lucky and got in for seats at the bar. We had Al's specials with bacon, eggs, pancakes, maple syrup and coffee that just doesn't stop getting refilled. The hash browns were much better than the ones we got in Lorie's.

We wandered into town and visited the to Embarcadero Centre which just seemed to be a lot of building and very few shops. You had to call security on a buzzer to get into the toilets for Gods sake! We then headed over to the Ferry Building Market where The Slanted Door restaurant  is located, they also do a good range of farmers market type shops with cheeses and meats etc,.

Having walked about in the morning sun yesterday and again today, our faces were both looking a tad redder than normal (and that's without the alcohol!) so a visit to Walgreens got us some After Sun and SPF 30 suncream. It's amazing how burnt you can get even with a little amount of sun.

View from Coit tower

 

We then took the no.39 bus up to the Coit tower. Coit has great views over the city and bay, $5 each to take the lift to the top which we duly did and got some snaps. The fog was burning off so we decided to do the bike across the Bridge in the afternoon.

Filbert Steps

We took the scenic Filbert Steps down from Coit. These steep wooden steps pass through some great gardens as well as having parrots living in amongst the trees. Some poor sods were walking up it - I can highly recommend the walk DOWN! Took the F line tram down and went back to the hotel to get ready.

We took the cable car down to Hyde and hired bikes from Blazing Saddles. Off we went along the southern coast and over the Golden Gate bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge

It was blowing a hooligan and we were freezing! It took us two hours to get to Sausalito on the north side but that was due to having to stop for a rest (ok, several rests!) on the way there. Sausalito is a quaint (read, expensive!) wee town on the north side of the bay.   We were glad to get there.

Half Way

After crossing the Bridge we went downhill but got slightly lost. Luckily I had taken the TomTom so used that to get us to Sausalito. We caught the 30 minute ferry back to San Francisco. The fog had started rolling back in over the hills by Sausalito, as you can see by the photos, it's really weird looking.

Fog rolling into Sausalito

We went to Hyde to pick up the cable car back to the hotel. There was a huge queue as it was teatime. Here's a handy tip we noticed as we queued. When they send the cars out they don't fill them up, they always leave standing room on the outside. So if you don't wan' to queue too long, don't wait at the cable car terminus - go up one stop and wait there. We started doing that and the wait was not so long!

Back at the hotel we collapsed in a heap, our legs were a bit achy but it's the butt that really hurt! That evening we tried for dinner at The Slanted Door, but it was full up. Even the queue to eat at the bar was massive so we gave up on that idea. We found a restaurant in the Embarcadero Centre called Sens instead. It says it is a Southern Mediterranean cuisine but it was more Eastern Med.

We had Duck Confit Filo "cigars" with pomegranate sauce, Flat Bread with vegetable lamejun, graviera, preserved peppers, followed by Market Casserole stuffed vegetables, chickpeas, spicy tomato sauce, baked in the wood oven and Fresh Egg Noodles with shredded pork, peas in a cream sauce. We also got a bottle of Provenance Merlot wine which we didn't manage to finish but took away with us. Total cost with tip was $130.   It was a so-so kind of place, certainly not busy (only us and 2 others in there). I'm sure the food was fine but not really to our taste.

Back to the hotel, finished the wine and so to bed.