San Franciso = Golden Gate Bridge?
Sunday, 29 February 2004 18:02 pm
All I would know about San Francisco before last week is that the city has a pretty long bridge which is famous the world over.
Well, Nadine and I went to this city in California last week for a lightning fast trip and discovered that there is a lot more to see than just this famous old red bridge.
C L I C K H E R E F O R T H E P I C T U R E S
Click on image for enlarged picture
Tired after an eleven hour flight from Hong Kong we arrived in San Francisco last Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the afternoon we pretty much slept in bed, and towards about 5 pm we set out to venture around this town the first time.
We took a cable car from Market Street to Fisherman’s Wharf and had a seafood diner in one of the many restaurants along the piers. The one item on the restaurant’s menu that attracts most fame here is the renowned clam chowder, so we included two cups of it in our diner. Indeed this is a very good start of your diner - or a diner in itself if you order a bowl instead of a cup.
After a few nightcaps in the Buena Vista cafe (claims to have invented Irish Coffee) we headed back to the hotel on O’Farrel / Mason Str.
Our next day was spent still jetlagged for a large part! In the afternoon we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, Presidio Park, and the Palace of Fine Arts. On the way back we asked our cabbie to drive via Lombard Street, which’s got one of the most crooked streets we’ve seen before.
After this we went back to the hotel, did some shopping in the area, had a huge piece of cheesecake in the Cheesecake Factory, and then had diner in one of the many 24hr diners in the area. (Boy did we eat a lot of food on this trip!)
Click on image for enlarged picture
Our last day was the best: if you want to see the San Francisco area you must rent a car. So that’s just what we did. We were awake very early so we were in a car rental company at about 6.30 am. About 30 minutes later we were cruising away in a brand new Ford Escape (unfortunately they had no Explorer available!).
Via Bay Bridge we drove to Berkeley and had a look around the campus of the University of California. Then it was off to Napa and Sonoma Valley. We made stops at two wineries but only tasted a little wine (got to drive you know). With four bottles of wine in the back of the car we cruised back to the city, but not before we had a quick look around Sausalito. This is a smaller village on the other end (Northern end) of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s got a great view over the city and the village itself has beautiful houses along it’s coastline and on the hills.
Back to SF over the Golden Gate Bridge, and headed for Twin Peaks. That’s the big hill in the middle of the city from which you’ve got a great view on the whole of San Francisco and the Bay.
After Twin Peaks it was down south along Highway no. 1 - the Pacific Highway. This beautiful road takes you down the west coast while some of the best views I’ve seen pass by my eyes. This is a truly great highway ride, with a much varied landscape.
I could have driven on for hours and hours along this highway (up to LA in fact!), but duty called for Nadine, and our flight would leave at 11:30pm that night, so had to head back to the city again.
We departed on time from San Francisco and took 14hr 40min (!!!!) to fly back to Hong Kong. We had headwinds of up to 200 km/hr, so this made our trip quite a bit longer than scheduled. The jetstreams over the pacific are very strong this time of the year, and to minimize the impact, we flew back a route following the US west coast up north, to Alaska, across the Bearing Street, over Russia, and down south again over Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
We arrived back in Hong Kong safe and sound at 7am, and back in the house at 8.30am
This was a great break and we look forward to our next!!
Cheers!