Arriving in San Francisco by 4:00pm unfortunately, there was road works on one of the main rods and as a result, the area that we needed to drop the car off was grid-locked. It took us 2 hours to find the hire-car drop-off point just off Union Square and get to the hotel just a block away. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got to our room in the Andrews Hotel.
Sunday 7th April
San Francisco, one of the top tourist destinations in the world and the leading financial and cultural centre for Northern California and we only had one full day to explore the city! After looking at a map, we set off on foot to fisherman's wharf one of the top must-see attractions. What the map didn't tell us was how steep the hills were.
The street that we walked along (up and down) was a 90 degree slope and even the fire engine struggled to get up it.
At Fisherman's Wharf, we bought a ticked for a open topped bus tour that took us around the city and out to the Golden Gate Bridge.
We spent the rest of the day hopping-on and off the bus taking photos of Alcatraz, the San Francisco, bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and finally Chinatown where we stopped for dinner. At Golden Gate Bridge, as we were crossing over, a cruise liner was coming into port and passed right beneath us.
By the time we had sampled the delights of Chinatown (and spent far too much money) we found that we were only a few blocks from the hotel and we had just enough energy to walk back to the hotel and collapse in the arm chairs in the room. This relaxation couldn't last too long, however, because we had to re-arrange luggage and pack again. We could only take a small bag with us on the train - for 4 days, so we had to be quite select as to what we packed. I can say one thing for sure, once we get back home, I hope I don't have to pack a bag for at least a month!
San Francisco had a lovely vibe and the people were very friendly and chatty; once again, we found that we wished we had more time to spend and explore - TripAdvisor indicates that there are more than 850 things to do in San Francisco and you certainly can't do that in a day and a half. One thing we didn't do was have a trolley bus ride - we had just enough time to snap a picture as it passed by.
That is a pity about the Trolley. If I had been there we would have got on and sang the Trolley song. " ding ding ding went the trolley, zing zing zing went my heart. Ha ha. But how are those streets.!!!! Imagine how hard it must be for all those film crews to set up.? Oh Ian let me know the name of the site for your review. I can't wait to read it.!!!!!
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, why are we one week behind you on your trip? The other side of the world is only 24 hours away.:-) ok a lot of up hills to climb. As you get further away from South Africa it takes longer for the messages to get to us. What a third world country!
ReplyDeleteSorry Tracy, I have been very bad in keeping up to date. My biggest problem is uploading the photos and editing the website. There has been no Internet access on the train across the US so I haven't got it all up to date. Will do that in the next few days.
DeletePlease be patient, normal transmission will be resumed shortly
Not to worry my friend. We are hsppy to just be includef in enjoying your trip. Your last ststement is definstely a Rhodesisn one. SA says "we have a problem. Please be patient". Have fun.
ReplyDeleteI thought that you would pick up on that statement! :-)
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