San Francisco - Day 2

Friday, July 11

I'm writing this as I wait in a very long line (in quite chilly conditions) for "a little cable car reaching halfway to the stars" - or even Downtown will do! We have had a very pleasant day down in the Fisherman's Wharf area but now, after dinner, we and most other day trippers, are wanting to get home. It was lovely and warm in the sunshine today but that is long gone now and the breeze off the water is quite cool.

We decided to catch a cable car to Fisherman's Wharf this morning. When we got to the ticket box at Market & Powell there were a couple of hundred people already in line so we joined it and had to wait 55 minutes to board a cable car. It's fortunate that they are so charming and unique otherwise the buses would do a roaring trade! Lines overseas are always interesting as you overhear other travellers' experiences as they talk amongst themselves or you try to pick the different languages you hear. In our case, we had a young Danish couple in front and a more mature French couple behind. The French couple didn't speak much English but did try and were very kind to take a photo of both of us riding the cable car. The Danish couple spoke excellent English and the girl had actually studied at the University of Queensland for one year and they had both visited on two other occasions so, with our recent visit to Copenhagen and their visits to Australia, we had lots to chat about. Needless to say, the 55 minutes passed quickly and enjoyably.

The Cable Car ticket line this morning

Manually turning the Cable Car

Finally ready for departure

When we reached Fisherman's Wharf, we were both quite peckish (what's new!) so were on the lookout for somewhere nice to eat when we spotted a store with some rather nice clothes in it. Luckily for me, the dresses fitted and suited me so, 4 dresses later, we left the store! We found a little cafe for lunch and, over lunch, decided to catch a street car back to our hotel with our shopping rather than carry it around all day. We had bought a daily transportation ticket that enabled us to use any form of transport as often as we liked until midnight so we thought it made sense to make the extra trip back to the hotel.

A vintage Street Car

The street cars are very vintage in appearance and they reminded us of the silver retro "Atomic" motor homes sometimes seen in old American movies. Sadly, when the next one arrived for us to catch, it was the modern version so we had to settle for riding in what looked like a bus on rails and just looking at the vintage street cars that we passed.

After dropping off the shopping and a quick freshen up, we lined up again for a cable car but this time, with fore knowledge, we walked a block or two and waited there rather than in the long line at the first stop. In the morning we had noticed that the cars were not totally filled at the first stop and when we had asked the driver why, he told us that they were not just for tourists but formed part of the metro transit system and so seats had to be left for passengers getting on at other stops. Aha! Definitely one for the memory bank that proved very useful for us. Only challenge was that the car we caught was only going to Chinatown - a little more than halfway to Fisherman's Wharf. We got off there and walked downhill (thankfully) to Pier 39.

No line and straight on

Pier 39 is VERY touristy and we thought it was like going to the Royal Melbourne Show without the sample bags or animals! Lots of souvenir shops, restaurants, cheap jewellery stores, gift shops, and stores selling sporting & celebrity memorabilia. The tourists were the same genre as those encountered at Disneyland, etc. We had a quick look around and took some photos.

Further along there was an excellent display on the history of Alcatraz accompanied by a great model of the island and lots of info boards and photos. The boards traced its history from a prison for Civil War sympathisers and wayward Confederate soldiers to the most heavily fortified prison in the world used to house infamous criminals like Al Capone. The last inmates were moved off the island in 1963. Another interesting aspect of the display was the focus on the lifestyles of the families of the wardens, etc. who had to live out on Alcatraz. We found it very interesting and it helped make up for the fact that we had arrived too late to get tickets to Alcatraz today.

The model of Alcatraz Island

From there we just ambled along soaking up the sunshine and holiday atmosphere. We went to Ghiradelli Square and The Cannery and by then, stores were beginning to close and the sun was going down.

We selected a good fish restaurant to have dinner and both of us chose a clam chowder for starters and the Red Snapper for the main course, and both turned out to be excellent choices. After a lovely meal, we headed for the cable car stop where this posting began.

The sun going down and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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