October 27th - November 4th 2012, San Francisco ...
Probably the last chance for a family holiday we planned this week in San Francisco some months ago ... it is a fantastic city, we had wonderful weather and enjoyed it all a lot!
So after a flight via Seattle - where we had to run to catch our flight to SF, we arrived in San Francisco ... started Saturday morning, arrived Saturday afternoon ... and this was the view from the plane, just before landing ... Golden Gate Bridge ...
... and here another view of the Bridge, Alcatraz (middle right) and the city.
We took a shuttle to our hotel ... and passed this strange building on 6th street ...
We arrived safely @ our hotel (great, just one block away from Union Square) ... and had the first welcome drinks in the bar ...
... later we went out ... had a first look at Union Square ...
... and found this - honest - guy ... his honesty was rewarded!
We followed the recommendation of the concierge and had a lovely dinner at a steak house restaurant close by.City Walking Tour
After a short night (jet lag) we had - like all days - our breakfast at Starbuckets ... the only barely bloody drinkable in the US that is barely drinkable ;-) ...
On day one, we booked a 4,5 hours walking tour through SF ...
... with a lovely guy called Anton. Fantastic tour, really good stories and - best of all - just 7 people max! So besides us there was just another couple! We can really recommend him ... if you're interested have a look at www.urbantrekusa.com ...
So we walked through San Francisco ... saw that funny Sushi Place ...
... and of course Chinatown, where one of the oldest buildings is.
We crossed the cable cars backwards and forwards ... what was really amazing for us ...
... was the steepness of the streets ... doesn't matter if you walk or drive (see below) ... it's REALLY steep!
Men in parks ... around Chinatown ...
... and one of the landmarks in San Francisco ... the Transamerica Pyramid ...
Due to the crisis a lot of homeless people and beggars were on the street ... this guy obviously didn't read the sign ...
Many more old buildings ... here one with beautiful paintings ...
And finally - taken from the Coit Tower - the view of the Golden Gate Bridge! What a weather! Around 20 degrees and no clouds!
Here all of us up at the Coit Tower ...
... where you also find a statue of Columbus ... here the x-rated-version ;-))) .... it's his finger ...
Here the Coit Tower ... we're continuing our tour downhill to the Pier ...
This is actually an official street ... more or less stairs down to the Pier ...
So the tour finished and we took the tram to Fisherman's Wharf ... here a seafood restaurant ... "if it swims, we have it" ;-)
After so much walking, we went into a bar to have some drinks ... no alcohol without an ID ... guns wouldn't have been a big problem we guess ;-)
Next day we took the cable car to walk a bit more ... here in action ...
... and stopped at the windiest road, Lombard Street ... later we drove it down as well ...
... and stopped at the windiest road, Lombard Street ... later we drove it down as well ...
... and came across this fire truck ... really nice people there ... and as you can guess, we have a photo of everyone in front of the truck with the helmet on ;-)
Back to Fisherman's Wharf we visited Pier 39 with the sea lions ... very loud and smelly ;-)
... here four women holding their breath ...
We jumped on the next tram we could get ... and where was it from? Melbourne!!!
They use a lot of different trams from all over ... and we caught this one!
For lunch we went to a Dim Sum Place that our guide had recommended ... was really nice, yum!Alcatraz
Germans as we are ;-) we pre-booked our Alcatraz trip ... we actually booked the "night tour" ... here on the boat on the way with SF behind us ...
... and it turned out that it would be a foggy night, that made everything even more spooky ...
The tour was great ... here the outside yard of the prisoners ...
... and Claudia inside a cell ...
It was closed in 1963 and you can only imagine how it must have been there ...
So it got dark, foggy and really spooky ... here the four girls with the prison as a background ...
You can hardly see the ferry in the picture ...
The nasty thing about Alcatraz is, that you're surrounded by the city, it seems very close but you cannot get there ...
So we went back and saw SF @ night ... on the right the Coit Tower ...Tour around by car
Tuesday we had a car hired to tour around SF ... and being in America, Thomas hired a real dick extension ... big, cheap and its motor hardly pulled the sausage off the plate (as we say in German) ...
So we drove North, unfortunately very foggy, so we continued straight to ...
... Bodega Bay, where Hitchcock's movie "Birds" was made ... and had lunch in the restaurant "The Tides", where a lot of scenes were filmed ...
We also took the road that Tippi Hedren drove with her convertible in the movie ...
... to arrive at the school building, where the first bird attack happened ...
We continued our tour to the Napa Valley, where we stopped at a winery for a wine tasting ... the wine was really good, so two bottles came back to Germany!
Driving back to SF we crossed the Bay Bridge in the fog ... a really good photo taken by Claudia in the car.Shopping / Last days / Tour to Golden Gate Bridge by car
We had more walks in SF; here the famous houses in Alamo with the skyline in the background ...
... and on to the old "hippie" quarters, Haight Ashbury, but unfortunately it lives off its history ...
... and the truth is in our point of view, that a lot of "dubious" elements are around there ... we left asap ...
After dinner we had some prosecco in the hotel to be prepared for the next day, where ...
... Thomas achieved a new world record: 7,5 hours shopping with four women! We drove South to an Outlet Centre and this photo was the result! Nice story when we picked up the hirecar ... Thomas booked a normal limousine; when the lady at the counter heard that 4 women went shopping one full day, she said "I'll upgrade you to an SUV, you need a bigger car!"
As Friday was another beautiful day, we decided on short notice, that we get a car again to make some photos of the bridge ... here the five of us in front of it ... again hardly any clouds ...
Three girls having fun ;-)
... and the two of us ... the hands are for the joggers to touch, then turn around and run back. At the bottom they also installed two paws for the joggers with dogs ;-)
We drove over the bridge to drive up ...
... the hill to take pictures like this!
We drove back, including Lombard Street, where we had another lovely view to Alcatraz ...
... and had our last dinner, again at the fantastic seafood restaurant "Alioto's" at Fisherman's Wharf ... superb food and wine!
So we took the cable car back, here manually turned around at the turntable ...
... and got the seats at the outside, that's just fantastic!
So on our last day, we walked around a bit more, hat more dim sum for lunch, took another photo of Alcatraz and - in the afternoon - made our way back to the Airport.So after a good flight back via Munich we arrived safely in Germany. We have to say, San Francisco is a fantastic city and we enjoyed every of our 7 days there!!!