We caught a shuttle bus into San Francisco and by doing so, we crossed the Bay Bridge so got some good views of the city including the Golden Gate Bridge. We were dropped near to Union Square and found our hostel which is only 2 blocks away. We had an interesting walk there, through Tenderloin which is one of the rougher areas in SF! We didn’t mean to, but wasn’t as bad as it was during the day! Staying clear at night though!! As we had arrived so early we were unable to check in but could store our bags and even managed to grab a shower! Feeling rather weak and hungry, we went in search of some much needed food! Considering we had a rubbish night sleep, neither of us were that tired, but couldn’t resist a vanilla cappuccino from MCD’s! Oh, have we mentioned our great disappointment that there are no Tim Hortons in any states that we are visiting apart from New York?! We have to wait ages!! Hmmmm!! Anyway, The city seemed huge and we couldn’t decided where to venture to first! We wondered past Union Square and saw the tour buses lined up! Out of interest we enquired about prices and to our surprise, it was reasonable and the ticket lasted 2days! We love a bargain so jumped aboard!!
Our tour guide was very amusing, he was black and very American and so funny! We loved the way he spoke, including how he called sheep, ‘sheeps’! He took us through Chinatown which is the biggest in North America or something?! They all seem to claim that they are the biggest so we are becoming a little unsure now!! We moved on towards the financial district where you could see the Transamerica pyramid which is the biggest building in SF, unfortunately we couldn’t go up it so can’t add it to our towers list! The second largest was the Bank of America, and as bankers are supposed to have a black heart, there was a large stone one outside the building! We passed a small café that was in the film, The Godfather I and II. We passed many of the roads with the steep, rolling hills, funnily enough the bus route didn’t seem to go along many of them! Hmmm! Oh, and the tour bus was one of the London red open top buses!! The poor driver was on the wrong side! There was a lovely area called little Italy where there were lots of cafes with tables outside on the street.
We passed St Peters and St Pauls catholic church where Marilyn Monroe had her second wedding pictures taken, she couldn’t marry here as Joe DiMaggio (her 2nd husband) was catholic and also previously married. It was also featured in the film, Dirty Harry with Clint Eastwood in. More relevant, it was the church where Sister Act I and II was filmed!! Exciting stuff!! The church’s address has the numbers 666 in it, and because of this it will not display the address on the outside of the building.
We passed Lombard street which is known as the crookedest street with something like 8 sharp corners on a hill! We then went down to fisherman’s wharf which was a real harbour, with fishing boats coming in with fish and preparing them on the boat, fresh fish food being served, little cafes and restaurants and that smell of the sea and fish! We went out on Pier 39 and there were hundreds of sea lions sunbathing!! They were sleeping on top of each other, and the occasional one would come and swim for us to see!! From the harbour you could see Alcatraz which is where the state prison once was. It was an army base once, and then an army jail before becoming a state prison. Many gangsters, including Al Capone, were sent there because of the security of the deep, shark infested waters surrounding it! However, 3 prisoners managed to escape at one point and were never seen again! Further down the harbour were some of the old navy ships and an old submarine.
We spent about 1.5 hours mooching around fisherman’s wharf and the little stalls before hopping back on our ‘hop on, hop off’ bus! We followed the tour to the end this time. We passed the Argonaut hotel in Delmonte square which was once the Delmonte cannery. Apparently it is the finest hotel in San Francisco..but I cant understand why we’re not staying there!!
We passed Galileo High school where many famous people went to school, including Oj Simpson, Johnny Mathis and Marilyn Monroe’s husband. The guide kept referring to the two earthquakes that have hit the city, one in 1906 and the other in 1989. He pointed out many buildings that survived the quakes, 2 of which are churches. He also told us about how the city hall was destroyed and the government promised to build the new one even bigger and better, to the point where they built it on springs to withstand another earthquake and covered it in gold, some real and some paint! We passed the rich area called pacific heights where many famous people have mansions. Rumour has it that the higher you live, the more money you have!
We continued the tour back to Union Square, passing through Tenderloin again and were warned that it is one of the roughest and toughest areas and to stay well clear of it!! From the tour we went back to the hostel to chill for a bit and check in. In the evening we headed over to China town, as we had to sample the Chinese here to compare it to the others we have had! This one tasted much more like the one we are used to at home..near Marks house! It has to be said though, the one in Seattle wins so far!!
We’re sharing our room with 2 German girls who have warned us that they are getting up at 4.30am! Great!! They seem nice though. Mark still hasn’t had his hair cut and is starting to resemble a grizzly bear..hope they don’t mistake him for one in Sequoia and Yosemite NP’s!