This morning our alarm went off at 4.30am and we were up and out for 5.00am. The guy at the hotel yesterday had told us there was a bus close by which would take us pretty close to the pier but we’d have to walk some of the way. We waited, hoping we were in the right spot for the bus. It came, I think we should have had a travel card of some sort because when we tried to pay he said just pay next time, so we got our ride for free. We got off and walked the rest of the way to the Alcatraz pier. There was already a quite large queue of people, I joined the back while James counted how many he thought were in front of us. We read there were about 150 tickets that go on sale every day like this. To make it fair everyone who wants a ticket has to be there in the line to buy them. James thought he counted around 50 people. So we were in for a chance of getting tickets. The only problem we might have is that some people on their own in the queue were waiting for others to join them before they buy and everyone can buy up to four tickets each. It’s a waiting game so we were in line from around 5.30am and had to stand and wait until 7.30am. At 7.15am they announced that tickets were going on sale soon and that we were to have our ID ready. This was the first time ID has been mentioned and we didn’t have any. Apparently it’s only the buyer who needs ID but we still didn’t have a piece between us. A kind couple from behind us in the line said they had ID and would be happy to buy our tickets also. That was so nice of them as otherwise I’m not sure what we’d have done. We got tickets! The couple behind us did buy our tickets for us and we gave them the money. We got on the 10.30am tour and had to be back here for 10.10am. It was only 7.30am so definitely time for breakfast. The closest thing was a Mcdonalds plus there wasn’t really anything else open. Sat in Mcdonalds there were a few wierdos and hobos talking away to themselves and sat with nothing bought from inside, we ate and left. We had a walk around Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf before going back to Alcatraz. At Pier 39 there were lots of Sealions basking in the sun and lots of shops etc but just not quite open yet. At 10.00am we walked back to the Alcatraz pier and got in the queue for boarding, there were loads of people. The ferry took only 12 minutes to reach the island and then we got off. The view from the ferry was great, this place does have a nickname of Fog City and it lived up to it today. The fog was out in force and some parts of the city were hard to see. Arriving on the island we had a group talk then headed up to the prison to get our audio tour machines. The tour was really interesting and told us about the various escape plans of which three prisoners are still unaccounted for today. It also said about Alcatraz’s most famous inmate Al Capone. We must have spent a good couple of hours here before heading back on the ferry to the main land. Before we had gone to Alcatraz we’d seen advertised about bicycle tours going across the Golden Gate bridge. After we got back we stopped to get some info on it. We decided to get something to eat and have a think about it. Seen as we’re at the piers we looked for sea food we headed to Fishermans Wharf where we got some clam chowder and battered fish, prawns and calamari, all of it was delicious. After eating and wandering round some more we went back to the stand with the bikes, we rented two bikes and headed off for the bridge. They had said it’s about an hour up and across the bridge then around an hour again to get back or you can catch a ferry back. The ride was only on two streets with cars and then it was fully cycle paths all the rest of the way. There were some major hills to get up which we tried to do but gave in to walking with the bikes up them. The views of the bridge were amazing, although we couldn’t see it fully because of the fog. We got onto the bridge where there was a side we could ride at. It was really windy but awesome to be riding up here. We decided seen as there were a lot of hills on the way up that we would skip the ferry on the way back and opt for riding back. Going down hill is a lot easier and a lot more fun! It didn’t take as long to get back, we did realise though that if we got back quicker we would only have to pay for two hours each and not slip into the third hour. We made it, although we’d pushed ourselves so much that when we got off the bikes we had wobbly legs! As a reward we treated ourselves to a beer at a bar on Pier 39. After our beer we headed back to our hotel to chill for half an hour and work out what to do for tea. We stopped off in another bar on the way back where we got asked for ID which we had none, so we moved on. Walked a little further and went into another bar, we had a couple of beers in here and got talking to an English bloke who's lived here for about ten years now. We made it back to the hotel where I realised just how sunburnt I had got today. My face and chest were bright red! Those months of building up resistence have been ruined by the cold in Australia and New Zealand. We thought about where to go for something to eat tonight and decided on going to The Cheesecake Factory which is inside Macy's department store. We got the lift up with a lot of othe people and it opened out onto extreme busyness. The place was heaving, we asked for a table and she said it was about a 45 minute wait for a table on the patio which we said was fine. She took our name and gave us a pager thing that will light up when our table is ready. We had a look at the other floors whilst we were here and then went back upstairs, just as we were coming out of the lift our pager lit up. We got seated and ordered food. The food was delicious, we didn't get too much on purpose because we have to have some cheesecake. There were so many different options, James had apple strudel and I had white chocolate and blueberry, yum! Extremely full we paid up and left for our hotel (for all Big Bang Theory fans, it's nothing like the one on the show). We got back in just after 11.00pm, since our alarm had gone off at 4.30am and we've been so busy today we so need our sleep tonight, both aching we went to bed.