Sunday 5th February
San Francisco is a cross between Wellington and Melbourne. Wellington for its harbour and steep streets, Melbourne for it’s cafe culture.
We arrived in San Francisco mid Sunday afternoon and drove alongside Fishermans wharf, which was bustling with tourists.
But we had no time for sightseeing as we were on a mission to find accomodation for a few nights. Fishermans wharf was well pricey,so we went off in search for a bed. We drove up some extremely steep hills, then down some extremely steep hills, all the while snapping photos out of the top of the roof. Aren’t convertibles great!
We managed to find nothing for less than $200 in this pricey town. It was time to resort to the lonely planet guide. It recommended the Maxwell as mid-priced accomodation in a central location. At only $150/night including parking we decided to take it.
The Maxwell is a 1908 Art Deco building. It was a comfortable clean room with Aveda products. It was built 3 years after the big earthquake, so we figure it would probably crumble in any major earthquake.
We found a fantastic steak and seafood grill for dinner, accompanied with some live jazz. Had a delightful dinner and a number of coronas. A very enjoyable evening.
Monday 6th February 2006
First stop, chinatown. Mike had downloaded a walking tour to his ipod. Stupidly I forgot mine so we had to share his one set of ear phones. Like a typical tourist couple, we wandered around china town basically joined at the hip, listening to stories of Chinese slavery and prostitution.
What a cheery way to start the morning.
We then headed to North Beach for breakfast, and stopped at a little cafÈ called Pams cafÈ. I had the best breakfast of the whole trip. Crispy bacon and home fried potatoes. Mike had biscuits and gravy. Sounds putrid but is apparently quite nice. I wasn’t keen to try it.
After breakfast it was time to brave the tourist infested Fishermans wharf. There were lots of stalls displaying fresh seafood. I really really wanted some, but not a good idea knowing my history of eating dodgy seafood.
We decided to hire a couple of bikes and cycle over the golden gate bridge. This was a really good call as the day was beaming with bright sunshine and exercise was more than overdue. This was so much fun and a very easy cycle. It was nice to be back on a bike again.
The view from the top of the golden gate bridge was magnificent, if just a little misty.On the other side of the bridge we stopped for coffee and cake, before catching the ferry back to the San Francisco port.
This was as close as we got to Alcatraz.
For the evening meal we decided to head to the Garlic Rose restaurant at north beach, which we passed earlier in the day.
Everything in this restaurant is loaded with garlic! For starters we had a bowl of whole garlic gloves. It was disgusting. We reeked for days after that. I havent quite enjoyed garlic the same since. I do not recommend this restaurant.
Tuesday 7th February 2006
We decided to walk to Golden Gate Park. This turned out to be a very long walk through streets of the low life ,drugged out, homeless, weirdo and nut case varieties. I did not feel safe at all. We decided to jump on the tram for the rest of the way.
The “Summer of Love” walking tour took us along Haight and Ashbury streets where we learned about a time in the ’60s in which hippies celebrated sex, drugs and rock and roll. We saw where famous stars such as Jonis Joplin lived and the Hells Angels head quarters.
Golden Gate Park itself was a bit of a disappointment. We expected something a bit more compact for a walking tour. Instead this would have been better suited as a driving orcycling tour. We got fed up and got the bus back to our hotel, picked up our bags, loaded the car and headed off to the Napa Valley for wining and dining.
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