San Francisco

Having made my way from LA to San Francisco the plan yesterday was to walk all the way along The Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf and The Marina to the Golden Gate Bridge, then back into town to take a cable car up to Lombard Street and walk down the zig-zaggy bit. I didn't quite manage all of that but I had a really good day none-the-less.

On getting into town and finding my way onto the front I was just going to get a photo of the Bay Bridge then start walking along toward Fisherman's Wharf, but in and around the old Ferry Building was a large and bustling farmers market, which diverted my attention for some time. There was all sorts of stalls selling all sorts of different types of fruit, veg. and other foods many of which I'd never even heard of. There was even someone selling real cheese. The sound track to this market place was an excellent, but strange musical drumming. I found the guy who was playing it and took a video:

You can see that in much better quality at http://gallery.me.com/philiphardy

Those aren't drums he's playing. Everything but.

I took my opportunity to get my cheeseburger at this market from the "something valley organic cattle ranch" stall. It was the best one I've had so far and I got the impression that the guy who cooked the burger knew it personally. I also got a custard an blueberry danish pastry from a bakery stall, which was also very nice.

Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 is an area at the end of The Embarcadero which is basically full of shops and sea food restaurants. There's also the sea lion colony (they don't smell too pleasent by the way) in the harbor, great views of Alcataz out over the bay and it's where the cable cars up into the centre start.

I didn't make it all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, but I did walk further along past the Marina and got a decent photo. I still think the Humber Bridge is better, even if it isn't in such a nice setting.

When I got back to Fisherman's Wharf the queue for the cable car was about an hour long, so I didn't bother with that. I walked up instead (it's a very steep climb). Then down the zig-zag section of Lomard Street, which is both a strange and interesting road but I'd hate to live there: There's a constant stream of tourists walking up and down it and a constant stream of traffic driving down it, just for the experience. The people that live there don't get a lot of peace.

As I didn't get to go on the cable car I took a street car (tram) back toward the ferry terminal. The street cars in San Francisco are all preserved heritage cars which used to run on city tramways around America and the world - one open top example, I noticed, had come from Blackpool. By this time I was tired and also a little sunburnt (yes I did put sun cream on in the morning, but I forgot to take it with me so I couldn't top-up) so headed back to the BART station to get a train back to the hotel.

Although really enjoyed LA and Hollywood is well worth seeing, San Francisco is definitely a nicer, more relaxed place.

Tomorrow I'm heading in the other direction toward San Jose and Silicon Valley.