NOVEMBER 13
We promised ourselves a bit of a "touristy" day for our one full day in San Francisco of the trip, and this seemed to be falling into place when the hotel we booked into - incidentally the one we first went to on our very first trip together to San Francisco ten years ago, and the one we first found when I was travelling with Nancy in '96 - offered us a 24 hour booking on a bus tour around the city which we decided to take them up upon without seeing either a weather forecast or what the dawn might bring.
And so, after a relatively wild and stormy night - at least as far as the Bay Area is concerned - (in other words, it rained), we got up with our deposits all paid for an open-topped bus tour of a pretty grey and miserable morning.
Still, you pays your money and so on, and we weren't ever not going to go, no matter how bad the weather got. After all, the deal meant that we could get off the bus wherever and whenever we chose if things got too rough and, well, to be perfectly frank, we were coming at this from a Derbyshire perspective and a little bit of drizzle wasn't going to put off stout sturdy folk like us who are used too it simply blatting down for weeks on end.
And so we ventured out, walking towards the ocean front via a park in which it was allegedly safe to wander after dark, one through which we used to walk on our earlier, more pedestrian, visits to the city, and we got ourselves involved in a chat about a statue, and we noticed a few hundred Pelicans flying through the fog, and were amazed at how much closer to the shore Alcatraz seemed in such conditions, and how "ship shaped" it seemed.
Of that great big orange bridge that was supposed to be out there somewhere, there was not a sign.
Still, after another great breakfast in another of our old haunts, "Lori's Diner", we decided to walk to Fisherman's Wharf and, after a little bit of financial jiggery-pokery to verify our tickets, we got on board our bus and set off on a two and a half hour circuit of the foggy city, deciding in the end to just stay on board for the entire trip, and maybe go around again later to get to one or two of the key places.
It was actually a lot of fun, despite the "Live Tour Guide" (as opposed to a recorded one... or any other kind of unalive one) seeming to be utterly obsessed with the cost of everything, telling us how much she paid to rent her apartment, and reminding us every few minutes that tips, of course, would be happily accepted.
We also learned a lot about the city, and about the charity work of the late, great Mr Robin Williams, when we were travelling through one of the "poorer" areas of what is now, apparently, one of the most expensive places to live in the entire world, which added a rather poignant note to the whole proceedings.
Still, we got to see a great deal of the city despite it being shrouded in fog, although I was rather disappointed that, on the one and only occasion in my life that I was driven across the Golden Gate Bridge (as opposed to driving it myself, or walking across it), you could barely see the flippin' thing...!
It does still excite me, though, and remains one of my absolutely favourite engineering works, and one that I simply never get tired of seeing.
Or even not seeing.
I did feel sorry, however, for anyone who might not have been as lucky as us, and may have been spending what might be their only day in the city in their entire lives, after perhaps having looked forward to it for years. After all, if you can remember my earlier post about our first morning on this holiday, and how popular and fantastic a viewpoint the Vista Point on the northern end of the bridge actually is, you might be less impressed with the view from almost the very same place, as seen at the mid-point of our bus tour that Thursday.
Still, you pays your money and so on, and we weren't ever not going to go, no matter how bad the weather got. After all, the deal meant that we could get off the bus wherever and whenever we chose if things got too rough and, well, to be perfectly frank, we were coming at this from a Derbyshire perspective and a little bit of drizzle wasn't going to put off stout sturdy folk like us who are used too it simply blatting down for weeks on end.
And so we ventured out, walking towards the ocean front via a park in which it was allegedly safe to wander after dark, one through which we used to walk on our earlier, more pedestrian, visits to the city, and we got ourselves involved in a chat about a statue, and we noticed a few hundred Pelicans flying through the fog, and were amazed at how much closer to the shore Alcatraz seemed in such conditions, and how "ship shaped" it seemed.Of that great big orange bridge that was supposed to be out there somewhere, there was not a sign.
Still, after another great breakfast in another of our old haunts, "Lori's Diner", we decided to walk to Fisherman's Wharf and, after a little bit of financial jiggery-pokery to verify our tickets, we got on board our bus and set off on a two and a half hour circuit of the foggy city, deciding in the end to just stay on board for the entire trip, and maybe go around again later to get to one or two of the key places.
It was actually a lot of fun, despite the "Live Tour Guide" (as opposed to a recorded one... or any other kind of unalive one) seeming to be utterly obsessed with the cost of everything, telling us how much she paid to rent her apartment, and reminding us every few minutes that tips, of course, would be happily accepted.We also learned a lot about the city, and about the charity work of the late, great Mr Robin Williams, when we were travelling through one of the "poorer" areas of what is now, apparently, one of the most expensive places to live in the entire world, which added a rather poignant note to the whole proceedings.
Still, we got to see a great deal of the city despite it being shrouded in fog, although I was rather disappointed that, on the one and only occasion in my life that I was driven across the Golden Gate Bridge (as opposed to driving it myself, or walking across it), you could barely see the flippin' thing...!
It does still excite me, though, and remains one of my absolutely favourite engineering works, and one that I simply never get tired of seeing.
Or even not seeing.
I did feel sorry, however, for anyone who might not have been as lucky as us, and may have been spending what might be their only day in the city in their entire lives, after perhaps having looked forward to it for years. After all, if you can remember my earlier post about our first morning on this holiday, and how popular and fantastic a viewpoint the Vista Point on the northern end of the bridge actually is, you might be less impressed with the view from almost the very same place, as seen at the mid-point of our bus tour that Thursday.
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