San Francisco

  San Francisco, California, United States
Saturday, July 5, 2008

July 5, San Francisco
 
partly clouded 23°C/73°F, later full sun 28°C/81°F
 
 
Because of all the walking yesterday we were so tired that we have slept well and even for a long time. Till 06.45. Then we were really awake, so dress, stuff packages and to the bus stop. This time we took bus 30 in to the center and get off on Market street. 

Union Square

On the angle of O'Farrell and Powell we had a breakfast at Starbucks and afterward we walked to Union Square where it was still terribly quiet. That was not completely strange because it was just 09.00 o'clock and most of the shops open at 10.00. But not all! Virgin Records on Market was already open, but unfortunately they didn't have the complete 11 seasons TV serial of MASH in stock.

Cable Car

Then we walked to the Cable Car at Powell to take the Powell-Hyde line, because of the spectacular view. There already was a considerably long line of people waiting so I would obtain the tickets (a $5) at the kiosk while Frans would stand in line. The line solved very fast because cable cars came in regular. When it was our turn, we let the first car go because this one would take another line, a less spectacular route. Because of this we stood for the following in front of the line and we had beautiful places, in the front, at the outside. Lively the car took us through Powell. Took a corner for Jackson and on the junction with Jones the fun was over ! Car broken! First we waited for the push car who pushed our car a couple of meters but it didn't help, we were stranded. An ordinary bus took us up and brought us through a detour to the end stop on Hyde Street. We were not the only ones who missed the car that day, the following next 3 hours there were more cars who didn't ride and we were told that this happens very often. The public transportations in San Francisco are in for improvement. 

We were very disappointed and this grief is best dissolved at Starbucks, with a white chocolate mocha. On the way to Starbucks we bought a 8GB memory card, class 6 for the video camera. We got the idea that we wouldn't have enough by our 2GB and 4GB. Officially there was no possibility to bargained there, but Frans gets nevertheless $30 of the price and we could film to desire. We had to pay this, however, cash so we went to an ATM to replenish our cash.

As we stand there refueling money, we saw a chalkboard advertising "Hop on-Hop off" sightseeing tours. We had done this in Malaga in 2007 too, and because it is an easy way to see the city, we decided to do it here also. It is an easy, comfortable manner to see the best spots in town without a lot of running through the city or to have to take all kinds of different kinds of transport. Of course you can do this also cheaper by ordinary bus, provided that these are in order, but the hop on-hop off's will bring you automatically along the curiosities and you are able to get on and of as many times as you want for 24 hours. Every half hour or less, a bus is coming. And since we already had bad experience with the reliability of the regular buses, we found this a good alternative.
When the salesman of the tours looked just for a second to the other side, rapidly we torn from 2 folders the discount coupons what produced a discount of $3 pp on tickets which nevertheless cost $27 pp. We started to walk in the direction of the start point of the hops which was at Fishermans Warf across the Cannery.

On this route we also passed the gallery where we informed about the painting  yesterday and where we got  the card with the email address. We stood still just to look at the other paintings as we were then addressed by the lady who was there. She proved to be the artist of the painting. We told her that we gladly wanted her painting but that it was unfortunately sold. She however told us that the purchasers who bought the painting would rather have it in a different  color, so she would make a new painting for these people. If we still wanted, we could still buy the painting we really wanted! And that's what we wanted! We bought it and it would be shipped to the Netherlands. It was to be expected to arrive around the time we would end our vacation.

City Hall

Bank of America

Hurried to the Hop-on-off bus. We got on the bus and had a nice place at the upper level of this open double-decker, therefore we decided to first  take the complete route without hopping off. The guide of this bus, Jim, told us much and in a very nice and lively way as we drove through parts of the town as China Town, Little Italy, along City Hall, Transamerica Pyramide and other particular places. At the end of the tour everyone had to get off the bus, so we did and stepped in the next bus which took the same route. 

This time we got off at the Ferry building. This is a beautiful building with all kinds of little stores where you can get things to eat and drink. It was three o'clock therefore we thought it was time for lunch. We went to a little Japanese shop to get a bento box. This is something I never heard of in our country and is a plastic bucket with 5 different sorts of food. All 5 tasted differently and all 5 tasted very nice. Because there were a lot of tasty things shown on the counter, we also took a scrimp-cake and something fried. All together very tasteful. After we left the Ferry Building we hopped on the bus again. 

In the sun at the upper Hop On

The next stop where we hopped off was Union Square, where we've been already that morning. Now the shops were, of course, open, so we went to Macy's. We had bought some postcards earlier that day and Macy's has a little post office in the basement. Meanwhile we had been spending some time in the sun, like during the hop on at the upper level of the open bus and also during the walking. We had not counted in the morning on this, therefore we had used no sunburn and were red! Burned! But Macy's is a large shop where a lot of cosmetics are for sale, so we selected one who sold after sun and had it displayed as a tester on the stand and got our noses rubbed!
Afterward we hopped on, for the last time last and we got off at Pier 39. 

Seal who was willing to be taken picture of

On Pier 39 we wanted to get a look at the seals again. We had already briefly seen them yesterday morning but we found it nice to look at them for a little bit longer. This feeling was unfortunately not mutual. The colony was mainly solonie. The one seal was later visited by some other seals but as soon as they saw our video or photo camera, they hid themselves and were very hard to film, only one sleeping seal could be shot on camera.... 

Golden Gate Bridge

From this spot luckily we could photograph the Golden Gate Bridge that was now out of the fog for the first time since our visit. We walked from Fishermans Warf to Columbus and surprisingly enough this time bus 30 was operational! So we took the bus to the hotel. Frans came up with the idea to go by car and drive the bridge to Marin Point. This of course was a very good plan, and the view turned out to be spectacular, breathtakingly beautiful! It was there, however, fresh by wind but we had our sweaters and it was absolutely worth it. 

Back at our hotel we asked  for an address for a good steakhouse at the reception. The staff of Luna Inn is very helpful and recommended us Jones, a steakhouse approximately 3 blocks further on Lombard street. Delicious food. At 22.00 we were back on our room. Rapidly the picture postcards were written and then we went to sleep. These are long days, our bodies live in a different time zone and by walking the complete day it were very tireing days, but San Francisco is a delicious city where so much is to see and to be done.

Distance driven by car: We got the car on the airport on mileage 15907.
To the hotel and from the hotel to and back from Marin Point we had driven 32 mile.