San Francisco Hotels
|
  | |  |
San Francisco
Entry 15 of 18 | show all | print this entry |
We arrived in San Francisco in the afternoon and managed to find a hotel on Lombard street after Scott's successful driving through the city. We headed down to Fisherman's Wharf to have a walk and see some sights. On the way we went down the famous part of Lombard street, they claim it's the curviest street in the world but apparently that's a lie. It was pretty cool, it seems only tourists drive down it though and there are regularly 3 or 4 block tail-backs with people queuing to drive it. The crossroads at the top and bottom were littered with tourists taking pictures, just standing in the road, though fortunately we got to see it when it was quiet too.
We walked down to the main front and walked Pier 39 which is famous for it's Sea Lions. There were loads of them all sunbathing on the dock. The ships have been moved out of there to make way for them. They were making a lot of noise, we watched them for a while, some fighting and some sunning themselves, it was great. From there we also got a great view of Alcatraz and the golden gate bridge. We walked round some of the tourist attractions on the pier before having a nice dinner there, looking out to sea.
The next day we decided to do a walking tour described in our guidebook. We walked up a giant hill to a stairway park which had some fantastic views of the city and out to sea. We had a look in the cafe where Francis Ford Coppola wrote parts of the Godfather screen play and round the corner we saw his offices. Next we made our way to chinatown which we really liked. We bought some fortune cookies from the place where they were invented! They were invented for a japanese tea garden in golden gate park by the San Francisco fortune cookie company. There were little ladies sitting making them in the shop. Mine suggested I had a way with words and should write a letter. Scott's was that he had an interesting musical opportunity coming his way. Not bad but they got rubbish after that. At the end of Chinatown we walked into the financial district where we caught part of a chinese parade and then onto Union Square. We wandered briefly around Macy's before making our way to the top to buy Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. We ate them out on the square in the sunshine, very tasty. From there we walked back up through Chinatown and made our own way up the hill and back to the hotel. We found a really nice Thai restaurant that night.
We spent Sunday in Golden Gate Park, it was mothers day so it was pretty busy. We had an hour on a pedal boat on a pretty lake filled with turtles! We had a nice walk through the park and went to the Japanese Tea Gardens. Unfortunately they weren't terribly peaceful as they were jammed full of people, lots of kids making lots of noise but the screaming parents were worse. They were really pretty though.
After that we headed to Twin Peaks. We stopped off at a nice beach and watched some people kite surfing, and Mario jumped out of a pipe! There is a great viewpoint over the whole city from the top of the hills. It was really beautiful and apparently we had a great day for visibility. I didn't think visibility was at all bad during our whole stay but they do call San Francisco Fog City so maybe we got lucky.
On our third day we went back to the seafront and walked along it. We visited the Maritime National Park which is a pier with loads of really old boats on it, they were cool. Then We went to the USS Pampanito, it's a WW2 US Navy submarine that made 6 pacific patrols during the war and sank 6 Japanese ships. We did an Audio tour through it, really interesting and quite creepy. Amazing to think that 36 men spent months cramped up together in there with the constant threat of being sunk themselves. They rescued 72 Australian and British POWs at one point too.
After that we had some doughnuts on Pier 39 and then did a good long walk right along the front. We stopped at a fishing pier for a while watching the ships and getting some daft looking sunburn lines arond our sunglasses. That night was the highlight of San Francisco. We went to Alcatraz, the boat ride over was beautiful it was still sunny. We walked all through the main prison building on an Audio tour. We got to see the cells and the dining room and all the various areas and heard lots of stories from reformed prisoners and guards about their time there. There were some really interesting escape attempts too. From there we joined a guide to hear about some of the infamous inmates, really crazy stories. We watched the sunset behind Golden Gate Bridge and got some great views of San Francisco shoreline after dark. There was another guide telling the story of a successful escape attempt. Three guys made it off the island and were never seen again, most assume they drowned but they may have made it. The guy who masterminded the whole thing decided not to go in the end! We also got to hear another guide talking about Al Capone and another couple of inmates. One of whom was let out and then continued on a crime spree, he's on the top ten most wanted list still and will be 80 now, his name is James Bulger. The whole thing was amazing, incredibly interesting, most people don't get to do it when they visit as it sells out so quickly so we were lucky to be able to book in advance.
Our final day was spent cycling. We hired bikes and cycled along the shoreline to the Golden Gate Bridge. The cycle over it was nice, not too busy and plenty of space, incredible views. We cycled along the coast on the other side, stopping for lunch and salt water taffy in Sausalito. We made it all the way to Tiburon, about 16 miles on a very hot day. We caught the ferry back feeling absolutely knackered but pleased with ourselves for making it. That was it for San Francisco, the next day we headed down the coast.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from California, United States or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
