The problem with spending just one whole day in San Francisco is deciding which bits to leave out. There is just so much to do and famous sights to see. You could spend your entire life here and still discover something new.
The day had dawned grey, foggy and not particularly warm. Having a day long cruise round the bay was most definately not an option. I had my first cable car encounter when driving into the city, but had not yet been on one. From the Holiday Inn in Van Ness that is not a problem as the California Street cable car terminates right outside the hotel. A six dollar "Muni Pass" gains you unlimited access to the cable cars and public buses for a day.
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Lombard Street is reported as the worlds crookedest street, and has been featured
in just about as many movies and TV series as you could think of. The street was originally a little used steep incline, unsuitable for horse
drawn carraiges and early cars. Then in the mid 1920's it was re-laid in a zig-zag form to reduce the slope. The work was conducted by the authorities
but the residents were required to provide upkeep on the flower beds. Although this re-alignment made the street usable, its fate as a tourist attraction
was sealed. Nowadays the street is a continuous slow moving crawl of tourist cars and camera's.
I didn't drive down the street, although I did walk both up and down. Phew!! Hard work! |
| Sitting, lonely and isolated in the middle of San Francisco Bay is Alcatraz Island. An infamous prison from which no-one is known to have escaped, it was abandoned in 1967 by the government as being too expensive and primitive. The only inmates nowadays are the many tourists who visit the island. Even from the safety of the mainland shore, the island has a forbidding, uninviting look, sitting in the powerful cross currents of the cold bay waters. | 
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Until just a few days before the 1989 earthquake, thousands of seals inhabited Seal Rocks, just off the west coast of San Francisco in the Pacific. However, for reasons unknown, the seals all moved to Peir 39 off the eastern side of the City. The seals are still here to this day, although increasing numbers are now being found back at Seal Rock. |
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Further east around the seafront in downtown SF is the Embarcadero Centre. This
is a modern office/shopping complex formed from four skyscrapers. The 42nd
floor is open to the public as the Skydeck and offers stunning views over
the city and bay. The faint of heart can stay inside the building whilst
those of a firmer constitution can venture out onto the rooftop walkways.
Don't worry though, 1 inch thick plate glass prevents any little slips.....
On a cold grey foggy day the views do not quite come upto those displayed in the official Embacardero Centre brochure, but are captivating, non-the-less. |
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Finally, no journey to San Francisco would be complete without another mention of
those cable cars.
A steel rope is buried into the roads between the two rails, and the car operative operates a mechanism to grab and lock onto the cable and propel the car forward. A typical cable is around 8 miles long, and has a life expectancy of between 100-300 days. Corners, and changes in gradient are accomplished by an under road chamber in which the necessary pulleys are located. On the corner of Washington and Mason is the Cable Car museum, which provides a fascinating insight into these famous vehicles. |
