San Francisco - Piers 39 to 14
Yesterday (Saturday) was a 'taking it easy' day. Of course, things didn't quite go according to plan. The first problem was failing to get on the bus. Grumpy bus driver demanded that we produced the exact change, then told us to hurry up, so we gave up on that plan. We started walking towards the Golden Gate Park, but then I noticed that the map said 'The scale to the left of the Presidio is greatly compressed' meaning that it was a lot further than I thought!
We did make it to Japan Town, which is kind of like San Francisco's China Town only not remotely as touristy. There was no-one around, though there was a rather beautiful pagoda in the Japan Park. There was also a monument to the Japanese who were rounded up by the US during the Second World War and taken to concentration camps. There's a piece of history of which I knew nothing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
We carried on walking around SF's sloped streets until we got to Macondery Lane, the place which was the inspiration for Barbary Lane in Armisted Maupin's 'Tales of The City'. Part of the TV adaptation was filmed here, so we had a look for Anna Madrigal's house which we may have found - there were a few candidates. There was a really beautiful footpath between the streets that took us past some great-looking places.
We made our way to Fisherman's Wharf - which was the tourist area. Everywhere else we'd been had been kind of empty, like Hampstead on a Wednesday afternoon, but Fisherman's Wharf was stacked like Alton Towers in August. We got straight onto a Duck Tours bus for a tour around the bay area. I've wanted to go on the 'DUKW' ever since I used to see them going around London. They're the huge WW2 vehicles that go on the land and the sea. It took us through the Commercial district to the bay, where we went past a couple of enormous liners to the Giants Baseball Stadium. Baseball means little to me, but I liked the 'Splash downs' where they hit the balls out of the stadium and into the water. Apparently people in boats and kayaks fight over the balls, which could fetch as much as $650,000 on Ebay.
Back on land, we walked up the Wharf to the Farmer's Market, all within view of the Bay Bridge, the second most famous bridge in SF. We had a walk up Piers 39 and 14, the first of which was extremely stuffed with tourists, looking at the shops and the sea-lions who bathe on some floating platforms nearby. Pier 14 had some nice views over the bay.
We then got a 'Clipper' card to get us on the buses. We took the bus to Union Square where we had a beer in the square. We did a spot of shopping too, I got a new jacket in Macy's and Si got some t-shirts, including a highly prized Ben Sherman 'Target' T-shirt. We also went to Borders, but I got a migraine.
I did it all wrong today, not getting a big enough breakfast, walking too far in the blazing sun, having a beer, not drinking enough water... fortunately it wasn't too severe. We had southern fried chicken for dinner - we had tried to get into Cheescake Factory at Macy's, but there was an hour queue.
Came back to the hotel, went to bed. A great day overall, shame about the migraine.
We did make it to Japan Town, which is kind of like San Francisco's China Town only not remotely as touristy. There was no-one around, though there was a rather beautiful pagoda in the Japan Park. There was also a monument to the Japanese who were rounded up by the US during the Second World War and taken to concentration camps. There's a piece of history of which I knew nothing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
We carried on walking around SF's sloped streets until we got to Macondery Lane, the place which was the inspiration for Barbary Lane in Armisted Maupin's 'Tales of The City'. Part of the TV adaptation was filmed here, so we had a look for Anna Madrigal's house which we may have found - there were a few candidates. There was a really beautiful footpath between the streets that took us past some great-looking places.
We made our way to Fisherman's Wharf - which was the tourist area. Everywhere else we'd been had been kind of empty, like Hampstead on a Wednesday afternoon, but Fisherman's Wharf was stacked like Alton Towers in August. We got straight onto a Duck Tours bus for a tour around the bay area. I've wanted to go on the 'DUKW' ever since I used to see them going around London. They're the huge WW2 vehicles that go on the land and the sea. It took us through the Commercial district to the bay, where we went past a couple of enormous liners to the Giants Baseball Stadium. Baseball means little to me, but I liked the 'Splash downs' where they hit the balls out of the stadium and into the water. Apparently people in boats and kayaks fight over the balls, which could fetch as much as $650,000 on Ebay.
Back on land, we walked up the Wharf to the Farmer's Market, all within view of the Bay Bridge, the second most famous bridge in SF. We had a walk up Piers 39 and 14, the first of which was extremely stuffed with tourists, looking at the shops and the sea-lions who bathe on some floating platforms nearby. Pier 14 had some nice views over the bay.
We then got a 'Clipper' card to get us on the buses. We took the bus to Union Square where we had a beer in the square. We did a spot of shopping too, I got a new jacket in Macy's and Si got some t-shirts, including a highly prized Ben Sherman 'Target' T-shirt. We also went to Borders, but I got a migraine.
I did it all wrong today, not getting a big enough breakfast, walking too far in the blazing sun, having a beer, not drinking enough water... fortunately it wasn't too severe. We had southern fried chicken for dinner - we had tried to get into Cheescake Factory at Macy's, but there was an hour queue.
Came back to the hotel, went to bed. A great day overall, shame about the migraine.