San Francisco - a few more pics

Posted on April 22nd, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

After deleting a lot of my own pics from San Francisco (!!), it was great to find out how good Graeme’s pics were. Click below to see just a highlight …

San Francisco - a few more pics

0 comments.

San Francisco - the pics

Posted on March 30th, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

Well, it’s only taken three weeks (!), but you’ll now find by following the link below my photos from the last one and a half days of our holiday in San Francisco. There’s a fair number of them and they’ve still to be sorted, but I hope you’ll enjoy them …

San Francisco - the pics

0 comments.

San Francisco - Day 6

Posted on March 7th, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

As I was saying, we’d had a manic day - so we were really looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Which is why we couldn’t decide whether to laugh or to cry when we were kept up half the night by our, er, amorous neighbours. Oh God, were they vocal! I will say no more.

It was our last day in San Francisco, so we wandered down to Union Square, and Macy’s Cheesecake Factory! After a huge first course, I couldn’t quite manage a cheesecake, but Graeme managed to down a Tiramisu in 10 seconds flat. I was a bit disturbed to hear later one of the waitresses saying that they’d had problems de-frosting the cheesecakes, but last time I checked G was still alive!

We rolled out of Macy’s and onto the F-line, heading towards the Civic Centre. We saw the Town Hall (impressive), The Great Seal of the State of California (tacky) and United Nations Plaza, where the original UN Charter was signed (inspiring). After perving for a bit too long at a policeman (see the pics), we took the F-line and then our last cable car back to the hotel.

Then it was back onto BART, heading south to the airport. As ever, we arrived at the terminal hours early, but this gave us a bit extra time to browse the ‘duty free’ goods and to drink our last glasses of Californian wine. I think the past five days were beginning to catch up with me because all I wanted to do was get on the plane and get home - of course, there was a 10-hour flight and a 90-minute Tube journey to deal with first! Oh yes, and three hours of Corporate Financial Management at university …

It’s good to be home now. But I already want to go back there …

0 comments.

San Francisco - Day 5

Posted on March 6th, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

After the crisis with my camera yesterday, we decided to do a whirlwind morning photo tour of San Francisco. We re-visited as many of the city’s sites - Union Square, Pier 39, the sealions, Lombard Street, Ghiradelli Square and the cable cars. We even took another boat trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. It was good getting to see everything again, but I would have preferred not to have lost my original photos in the first place!

We spent the afternoon at the Exploratorium, an interactive (big kids) science museum. It was more fun than it sounds, but after five days of hiking San Francisco’s slopes, it was a bit of a killer. (A tip to anyone that might be heading to the Exploratorium - try the restaurant’s dry, stale sandwiches)! Afterwards, we took the Muni underground to Castro, where we had drinks at the The Bar (catchy name!) and our last meal in the city at Fuzio’s.

It had been a manic day, so we were really needing a good night’s sleep …

0 comments.

San Francisco - Day 4

Posted on March 5th, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

Today started with a leisurely morning at ‘Cup a Joe’s’ cafe, a couple of blocks from the hotel. After updating our blogs, we took the F-line tram to Castro, San Francisco’s (in)famous gay neighbourhood. It’s difficult to describe Castro - it’s not like London’s Soho or Manchester’s Canal Street. It’s more a mini gay town - gay bars, gay restaurants, gay cinemas (even of the non-porn variety), gay charity shops and even gay dry cleaners! At its centre is a giant rainbow flag, in tribue to Harvey Milk, one of America’s first openly-gay officials, who was assassinated by a homophobic former colleague. Anyone interested in the history of the gay rights movement really should visit Castro, if only for a moment’s reflection underneath the flag. On a more light-hearted note, Castro also has the advantage of being filled with lots of beautiful gay men, of all shapes and sizes ..!

After lunch (another burger!), we jumped back on the F-line to the Aquarium of the Bay, which was pretty much just that. Nothing to write home about, so I won’t. Thankfully, our entry was ‘free’ using our travel pass - otherwise, I would have been very disappointed. However, being on Pier 39 gave us another opportunity to see the sealions, who for whatever reason were much livelier than before. We spent quite some time here taking even more photos, and then …

DISASTER! I some how formatted the memory card in my camera. All 350 or so photos lost in two seconds! I can’t remember the ‘five stages of grief’, but I’m sure I experienced them all - except, perhaps, acceptance. (I’m still cursing a week later). Unfortunately (and without justification) this led to me starting a huge argument with Graeme - shouting, door slamming, the full works! (For the record, Graeme, I am really sorry).

We finished the night at the restaurant next to the hotel. Nothing swanky, but the food was good - except for the squid eyes looking up from my plate! Your food really shouldn’t look back at you …

0 comments.

San Francisco - Day 3

Posted on March 4th, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

Today started with another cruise on the Bay - this time out to the former maximum security Federal Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island. This was a really fun trip - it’s not every day that you get to see the cells etc that were once home to Al Capone, Robert Stroud, etc. The island was much bigger than I was expecting, although I doubt this made it any more comfortable for the former inmates!

The tour starts with a video about the island, starting with its formation, its time as a fort and army prison, its 30 years or so as a Federal prison, the 18 months it was ‘colonised’ by Native Americans and its present incarnation as a National Park and home to lots of rare flora and fauna. We then did the audio tour, which took us through the cell block, into the guard rooms, the library and the kitchen. Finally, we ended up in the exercise yard, immortalised in Clint Eastwood’s film Escape from Alcatraz. The yard was a cruel place - surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers, but with the walls just low enough to see over the Bay to the city.

After the tour, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe - very touristy, but the chips alone were worth it! We then took a bus to Lombard Street, where we watched an endless stream of cars winding their way down the five hair-pin bends of ‘the crookedest street’ in the world. If we return to San Francisco, we’ll definitely be trying this out!

We then took a walk around North Beach, traditionally the Italian quarter, but now home to many more Chinese. However, there are still lots of Italian restaurants and cafes, and not a Starbucks to be seen! By now, my feet were killing me, so we had a couple of glasses of wine while watching the world go by. Then we headed back to the hotel - supposedly for a lie down - and I woke up about 12-hours later! San Francisco is a great city, but it really takes it out of you …

0 comments.

San Francisco - Day 2

Posted on March 3rd, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

After a much needed 12-hour sleep, we were collected by coach from the hotel for a tour of the city. I can’t remember everywhere we visited, but we covered a fair chunk of the city - Fisherman’s Wharf, North Beach, China Town, the Civic Centre (where we got to see The Great Seal of California - of the legal, not mammal, variety), the Presidio (a former fort and army base and now a park), etc etc. We also had a few short ‘photo breaks’ at Twin Peaks (where we got great views of the city and were asked to pose for a San Francisco ‘gay partners’ photo - not to be stereo-typical, or anything!), Golden Gate Park (a huge metropolitan park with Chinese Tea Gardens) and, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge. Apologies now for all the photos! This really is a great way to spend a morning in the city, especially if you are only visiting for a few days. Just remember to tip the driver more than 5 Dollars - oops!

Lunch was very Frisco - clam chowder served in a sour dough bowl. Sounds disgusting - but tastes great! It’s pretty much a seafood broth, but you also get to eat the bowl. Just beware of the ever present sea gulls and homeless people!

We then had a Bay Cruise, which took us from Pier 43.5 along the coast, under the Golden Gate Bridge and back around Alcatraz. We were really lucky both today and yesterday - the weather was excellent, giving great views (and smooth waters) in all directions.

After the cruise, we went to what was formerly the Del Monte Cannery, but is now a plaza with bars, coffee shops and live performances. We spent an hour or so relaxing and listening to a singer, and we even bought a couple of his CDs as a reminder of our visit. Then it was off to Ghiradelli Square, where the San Francisco chocolate of that ilk was once made. They still have a gellateria there - wow, the strawberry cheesecake ice cream is good!

We took the cable car from Ghiradelli Square to North Beach, where we had an Italian meal sitting next to a woman with very big hands! We then wandered down to Grant St, the centre of China Town, where the whole city seemed to be enjoying the celebrations for the Chinese New Year (of the boar). We caught the end of the parade, bought some bangers and walked for miles! It was then back to the hotel for another long sleep …

0 comments.

San Francisco - Day 1

Posted on March 2nd, 2007 by bryan.
Categories: Holidays.

Finally, the day had arrived. It almost hadn’t been worth going to sleep - I was at uni last night and still had to do most of my ironing and all of my packing. We got up at 0445 and took the Picadilly line to Heathrow, where thankfully we decided to pay our way into the Exec Lounge - comfy seats, tea on tap and no screaming children!

The flight was uneventful - one of the benefits of paying a fortune to fly with British Airways, I guess. It took about ten hours to get to Frisco, just enough time to watch History Boys, Happy Feet and Bobby. Even the food was half decent!

Our arrival at the airport was heralded by an horrendous customs queue - I’m now another stat on the US database, with my photo and finger-prints recorded for life. I hate to say that it was all a bit extreme, but … Once we were finally allowed out of the airport, we took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) system to down-town Frisco. It was then a very long walk up a hill to our deluxe (!) room in the Hotel Carlton where the staff welcomed us like long-lost friends - a nice change from London and the airport!

Once we’d dropped off our bags we headed to Union Square where they were preparing for the Chinese New Year celebrations. After collecting our travel passes from SoMA (modern art gallery), we took the F-line trolley to Fisherman’s Wharf, one of the city’s most famous (and tackiest) tourist destinations. However, it does have at Pier 39 a colony of its own sea-lions and a great view out to the Federal Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island. Apparently the sea-lions have been coming here only since 1989, however, the population peak season can get up to 600. It was loud enough when there was only 50 of them!

We had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant on Pier 39. Lots of seafood - clams, squid and crab - and a lovely Pinot Grigio (I know, not very Californian).

We’d been on the go for almost 24 hours, so we finished the night off in the traditional San Francisco way - with a cable car ride back to the hotel. Cable cars are lots of fun, but you do feel a bit open to the elements … and in constant fear of your life!

0 comments.