Thursday 11 March 2010
BEAUTIFUL SAN FRANCISCO AND ALCATRAZ
Well after arriving last night we quickly showered and changed and were off out to find somewhere to eat (we were starving) ,anyway directly opposite where we are staying is a hotel called the Sir Francis Drake and attached to the hotel is a restaurant that seems to specialise in Italian food so we went for that and we wern`t dissapointed,although the waiter did try to give me the recipe for his salad dressing(does he realise that,s my specialty).Seriously the food was great and we slept well that night.
So it was another early start this morning 6.15,we haven`t got tea or coffee making facilities at this hotel in the room,what you have to do is take the lift down to the lobby and there you have what you want so you can guess it was my turn(betty does like her tea in bed).
Anyway we were out just after 8.00 to find our bearings and it was a lovely morning with not a cloud in the sky.now our day had already been pre planned we had got a two day pass for the tour bus that runs around san francisco and also we had booked a 10.am tour on the island of alcatraz,but what we decided to do was take the streetcar to fishermans wharf which is where we had to depart for alcatraz.
Now the streetcar here is something else you can just hop on the side and hold on ,all the seats are just wooden slats and the effort the driver has to put in to drive it is remarkable,he has got numerous levers to push and pull and foot pedals to control the braking i`m sure that the health and safety people wouldn`t allow them in england.
So we arrived at fishermans wharf and that is a great area ,we had to look for pier 33 which is where our boat was leaving from and that was easy to find ,now our tickets had been pre booked for alcatraz so betty was ok for getting back ,but i did notice that some guys were buying
their own and asking if they did just a one way ticket for their wives not that i would have asked!!!.Now the visit to alcatraz was something special,we were given a tour by a volunteer who you could tell was passionate about the place ,before alcatraz was a prison it started it`s days off by being a fortress to the bay of san francisco at the start of the californian gold rush and never became a prison until the 1930 s until 1963 when bobby kennedy ordered it`s closure.
The inside of the prison was pretty bleak especially the solitary confinement cells ,and it would have been a good swim if you decided that you wanted to escape.There was one of the surviving inmates in the bookshop who had served time on the rock,he had been a bank robber in new york and was sent to alcatraz to do time ,think he is one of only five who is still alive.The communal shower area and dining room were interesting and also the laundry area where al capone worked,but i could think of better places to stay in san francisco.Well we got back to fisjhermans wharf about 2.00pm and had lovely crab and prawn sandwich`s ,and then picked up a tour bus that took us over the golden gate bridge where we could take some photos and then came back across it and took us around the park area of san francisco and also the area that the hippies moved into in the sixties (i`m sure their are a few of us that can remember that era).Anyway it was a good opportunity to take some more photos before returning to union square which is where we are .Now betty has had a little doze on the bed while i have been figuring out how to download pictures(i`m doing something wrong but i don`t know what)anyway we will print this notice and try and download the pictures later.
speak soon brian.
So it was another early start this morning 6.15,we haven`t got tea or coffee making facilities at this hotel in the room,what you have to do is take the lift down to the lobby and there you have what you want so you can guess it was my turn(betty does like her tea in bed).
Anyway we were out just after 8.00 to find our bearings and it was a lovely morning with not a cloud in the sky.now our day had already been pre planned we had got a two day pass for the tour bus that runs around san francisco and also we had booked a 10.am tour on the island of alcatraz,but what we decided to do was take the streetcar to fishermans wharf which is where we had to depart for alcatraz.
Now the streetcar here is something else you can just hop on the side and hold on ,all the seats are just wooden slats and the effort the driver has to put in to drive it is remarkable,he has got numerous levers to push and pull and foot pedals to control the braking i`m sure that the health and safety people wouldn`t allow them in england.
So we arrived at fishermans wharf and that is a great area ,we had to look for pier 33 which is where our boat was leaving from and that was easy to find ,now our tickets had been pre booked for alcatraz so betty was ok for getting back ,but i did notice that some guys were buying
their own and asking if they did just a one way ticket for their wives not that i would have asked!!!.Now the visit to alcatraz was something special,we were given a tour by a volunteer who you could tell was passionate about the place ,before alcatraz was a prison it started it`s days off by being a fortress to the bay of san francisco at the start of the californian gold rush and never became a prison until the 1930 s until 1963 when bobby kennedy ordered it`s closure.
The inside of the prison was pretty bleak especially the solitary confinement cells ,and it would have been a good swim if you decided that you wanted to escape.There was one of the surviving inmates in the bookshop who had served time on the rock,he had been a bank robber in new york and was sent to alcatraz to do time ,think he is one of only five who is still alive.The communal shower area and dining room were interesting and also the laundry area where al capone worked,but i could think of better places to stay in san francisco.Well we got back to fisjhermans wharf about 2.00pm and had lovely crab and prawn sandwich`s ,and then picked up a tour bus that took us over the golden gate bridge where we could take some photos and then came back across it and took us around the park area of san francisco and also the area that the hippies moved into in the sixties (i`m sure their are a few of us that can remember that era).Anyway it was a good opportunity to take some more photos before returning to union square which is where we are .Now betty has had a little doze on the bed while i have been figuring out how to download pictures(i`m doing something wrong but i don`t know what)anyway we will print this notice and try and download the pictures later.
speak soon brian.
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