San Francisco to Sydney
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
1
13
Trip End
Oct 03, 2008
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Check out was 12 so the morning was spent lazing around, doing one final bag pack, checking emails until we checked out. We hadn't seen the bridge thing that is here yet, so off we ventured after checkout and stowing our bags for the afternoon.
We decided to do it the old fashioned way - self guided tour of the Golden Gate Bridge. Jumping on the 38L which was right at the front of our hotel, with me and my trusty San Fran map in my hand, we headed west. Not exactly sure where to get off I was watching each street pass us by making sure we didn't go too far.
Perfect timing for us, we have relied on someone else pressing the "STOP" button and this time no exception - the stop arrived and we changed over to the 22 for the trip to the bridge.
The map indicated the bus went across the bridge, and I thought it would be fun to go across the bridge. We stayed on the bus when all the tourists piled out. The bus went around the corner and we got the nerves that it would not go all the way across. Lucky for us there was another stop and we jumped off only to see the bus depart back towards San Francisco.
We wandered about half way across the bridge to the viewing platform at one of the Twin Towers (I guess you could say the original). As much as the drop is not huge, you could certainly see the swell coming in from the Pacific Ocean and the wind was pretty strong too. I read somewhere that no one had survived jumping off the bridge (I guess that was their intention unfortunately) with the exception of one person who later died due to internal injuries suffered from the impact with the water.
We had a few tussles with bike riders - the system at Brooklyn Bridge is much better where they have a separate path for pedestrians and bike riders, but managed to get ourselves safely back to the start of the bridge in one piece for a quick refreshment.
The bus was scheduled to pick us up at 5pm so we still had some time. As opposed to jumping back on the bus and heading back to downtown we went to Fort Mason. We were expecting more then just a car park when we arrived - perhaps it was over the hill, so off we went again - to the famous "Windiest Street in the World" We knew being in San Fran, this would be at the top of hill, the question for us was which would be the best bus stop to get off at the try and limit the uphill climb - we stuffed up.
4 Blocks later we had arrived at the top of a hill that was seemingly a 45 degree incline all the way with the exception of the intersections. I can understand why people catch the cable car up these hills, and also why everyone who parks on the street needs to turn their wheels at 45 degrees in case the hand brake fails. I guess you need to do everything once, but never twice!!
In both directions, the view was rather nice. One way over towards Alcatraz and the Bridge down the road that we had hiked up and the other down the road that we had hiked up to see. Only cars can travel down (there is no up) the road and the speed limit is an understandable 5 mph (just under 10kph) with about 5 or 6 hair pin turns the entire way.
Going down is much easier then going up, so of we went to catch the bus back to downtown. I sat next to a rather interesting lady on the bus who liked to share with everyone what she was up to whilst talking on her phone - a bit too fruity to talk about here.
The bus took us back to Union Square which was on the same block as the Hotel. A good outcome really - a full circle of parts of San Fran and back to the Hotel door.
We settled into our local diner for lunch. Both finishing up with Bacon Cheeseburgers and a few beers (not local - I just couldn't get why they drink that stuff).
After lunch we went and sat in Union Square and just chilled before the trek home. It was time to get our bags for the 5.00 PM bus. Just as we walked in, at about 4:40 PM mind you, this Super Shuttle bus rocks up - here we are wanting some service from them and they turn up 20 minutes early. We didn't realize he had passengers in his bus, but our luggage wasn't ready. We had this crazy little Asian driver who was as nervous as all hell. I couldn't tell him to do a block while we waited for the bags, nor did he understand that we didn't have our bags yet - I have no idea what his problem was he just kept going inside and out. We were in no hurry, we still have almost 6 hours till we left. Perhaps he was scared at getting a ticket - serves you right for being early!
Off we went - about 30 minutes later we arrived. Last to be picked up, First to be dropped off. As we arrived one of the passengers told him she wanted to go to a terminal we had already passed, and off he went to all and sundry. As we got out, our passing words were o our fellow passengers: "Good Luck"
We got here 5:30 PM and check in opened at 6:45 PM so another wait. Checked in a got 2 seats by themselves and on standby for upgrade to Business with our points but we are not overly confident - we can use them for something else fun another day.
Got some goodies duty free and just waited patiently for boarding to come home. We both really like Sam Fran - it's a place to visit and we will come back on our adventures. Reminds us of Melbourne - Good public transport, well laid out city and the people seem much friendly and relaxed then the crazy ones from LA. If you are leaving US to go home, we recommend leaving from San Fran as opposed to LA - so much easier!!
