Little boxes on the hillside....

Hi everyone….well one more day to go – this time tomorrow we’ll be heading to the airport here in San Francisco and getting ready to fly home – shame we can’t just say ‘beam me up Scotty’!

Today we headed in on the BART transit system (train underground and above ground). It’s very quick and clean and the chap at the info desk at the San Bruno station was very helpful and put us in the right direction.  We exited BART at Powell Street in the center of San Francisco – along with thousands of other tourists already there.  Inundated with maps from the visitor center we headed to Union Square – slightly off course – but we got there in the end – the idea was to do the hop on, hop off bus tour – we did it in an old tram – great  - but who ever tells you that it’s summer in San Francisco – take a sweater.  Man of man was it cold, windy – freezing!  The bus/tram was open air, but even people on the street were wearing sweaters.  I believe Mark Twain said something along the lines that the coldest winter he ever had was a summer in San Francisco! 

A hilly city it reminds me of the song  - Little boxes on the hill side – they’re all pastel and really pretty – long and thin and at least 2-3 stories high.  Interestingly I didn’t realise that in fact many of them are 2 or 3 residences in one – they have 2-3 front doors and people have one level each. 

The city has many cultures – Italian, Chinese to name a few and thus China town – actually there are now 3 china towns as the 1^st is about 6 square blocks and has about 33,000 people.  The streets are crowded, just like a Hong Kong market.  Then there’s Little Italy where many of the Italians settled in the past.  Now it’s cafes and food places.  The down town area – Pier 39 – Fisherman’s Wharf is so different from how I remember it 30 years ago (LOL aren’t we all different?)  Anyway back then I remember vendors selling little containers of seafood to eat, now it’s all cafes, food vendors, tourist shops – and people everywhere. 

Our tour bus took us for about 1 ½ ride right through south area, plus to the side of the Golden Gate Bridge, we could have transferred to another bus and gone over but honestly we were just so cold.  What we did see by the bridge though was the Team NZ boat out practicing for the Americas Cup so we were thrilled with that.

The little boxes - this shows the multiple front doors for the same building - i.e. this makes it 2 houses in one.

This was a 3 door front door 

Unfortunatley not the best shot of the Golden Gate Bridge - but couldn't get closer

Alcatraz, this is zoomed in, but it is actually really quite close to the city/mainland

City hall, the original was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Around Union square and Powell Street etc, I really loved the old buildings and was impressed that the leaders of the city have preserved the old buildings and not pulled them down and built high risers.  There are all the top stores, Macys,  Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Sacks 5^th Ave – we were actually cheeky and went in there to use their toilet! 

An observation – women in SF dress really nicely – some of the better dressed people I’ve seen on our journey – even the tourist women dressed well. 

Back to our hotel and to repack our bags, sitting on them to get them shut!

Thanks to everyone for joining our journey through this big country.  America you can be proud.  Everyone has been so nice to us, helped us if we were lost, and took an interest in where we came from.  Of particular was the lovely lady in the Route 66 Park Visitor Centre outside St Louis and also the Park Ranger chap there too.  They really made our day.  Thank you.

To our friends and family, Denise, Patti and Jim, Chris and Cindy and family, Kelli and family. Thank you for your generosity of time and your kindness.  Truly appreciated.

So here we go back to reality – dishes, housework and back to work  - so we can save up for another trip!

Happy travels everyone - watch this space - Florida to Alaska?  

Jane and Neil