Day 41 - San Francisco

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Today was our free day in San Francisco, and Mark and I took advantage by going for a bike tour of the city. From our hotel, we tried our best to locate the location of the bike tour shop, in the end walking in all directions around the block of the shop before finding it.
When we entered the shop, one guide had just set a couple on their way, before we were seen to. After putting our deposits down, the guide arranged the appropriate bikes for us. Then a route was recommended for us to take, and pretty soon we were on our way, cycling down the block into the traffic, and it was then down to us to suffer amongst the cars, buses and trucks. At one point, one road suddenly split into 3 lanes, with the outside lane, which we were heading for, leading to the freeway above.
Without a second thought, or the proper signalling and looking over our shoulders, Mark and I quickly moved over to the middle lane, and continued unharmed to our first stop.
It wasn’t planned, but we decided to stop on this road having turned off one of the main roads through the city. We were told about a special little shop that sold wonderful ice cream, but we were struggling to find it. We went into the grocery shop with the same name as the ice cream parlour, and eventually got told that the place we were looking for is a little further up the street. When we get there, the place is closed and doesn’t open til lunch, so to kill the 40 minutes or so, we headed across the street to a small café on the corner and got a smoothie.
When the ice cream place was finally open, we headed back across, looked on at the wonderful selection on offer and struggled to make a choice.
I ended up getting a mint ice cream whilst Mark gets some other flavour which I'm not sure of. At the end of the block was the corner of Dolores Park that had a slight slope to it and by the corner were tennis courts for locals to use for free.
Knowing that our bikes were securely locked up nearby, Mark and I decided to head over to the park, find a spot to sit, before finishing our ice creams and then deciding to take a half hour break out from the cycling, and enjoy the glorious sun.
The park was full with many other people having the same idea, as well as many dog walkers. Mark commented that this was a true idea of San Francisco culture. Something we wouldn’t have got if we had followed our own route.

When we finally decided to get back to the cycle ride, the next few blocks involved some uphill blocks, and going diagonally through 5 blocks before we reached a road that snakes its way across. Having safely crossed it we made our way to the supermarket car park opposite for another quick stop. Following the directions we were given, we followed a small path that goes behind the store, and we continued on our way.
We reached Golden Gate Park, where we had another stop to take in one of the free museums on offer. It offered a view of the city on its top level, which when we got there was pretty nice, but the railings and bars outside the window obstructed a clear photo opportunity.
Back on our bikes, we continued through the park, passing bison and a Dutch windmill, which Mark wasn’t keen to explore further. “Once you see one Dutch windmill, you’ve seen them all!” he explained.
After the windmill we reached the end of the park, and came out by the coast road that climbs up and around to a viewpoint of the Golden Gate Bridge, but the climb was a killer, seeming to go on forever. And when we did reach the top around the corner, the Bridge was still some way off, but we had another stop for some pictures of the Bridge, in the distance, with its two towers covered by low fog, on top of a hill right by a golf course. There were many other sightseers almost jostling for position of the limited view on offer.

When we resumed, the terrain was mixed, with some downhill spots before coming to another spot where there was still some climbing to do, which I struggled with, stopping at one point and almost giving up.
It didn’t help that this climb was on Lincoln Boulevard, and that some cyclist kept climbing the road, and then sailing back down to the bottom to climb back up again.
Mark encouraged me to continue, which I did, and when we finally reached the top, we came across an old disused barracks or factory of some sort that offered an even closer view of the Golden Gate than before, and this time, the low fog had cleared so there was an uninterrupted view of the bridge.
Back on our bikes, the Boulevard was now downhill, and before long we reached the bottom and the road that goes underneath the pass to the Bridge. After we made our way under the pass, we came across the car park we were the day before when Todd dropped us off for the walk across the Golden Gate.
After stocking up on a small lunch, I headed back into the gift shop we entered yesterday and bought a hooded top, one, because of the touristy value, and second, the weather was making me feel a little cold on my top half now.
When I returned, we decided that we didn’t need to cycle across the Bridge, having walked it yesterday, and then headed along Marine Boulevard to the Fisherman’s Wharf, taking in the historic cable car turntable and one or two of the historic piers, getting one last look at the Golden Gate, before heading along the Wharf front, and back up the streets, and amongst the busy traffic again, to the bike tour shop.
After paying up fully, Mark and I went our separate ways as he was meeting another old friend, whilst I headed back to the hotel for some chilling out before the rest of us met up again later for dinner.

Eventually, everyone apart from Mark and Sumi joined us for dinner, and we headed to a seafood restaurant near the waterside.
After dinner we all left the restaurant together and headed as one big group to the district nearby the restaurant we visited the previous night. Todd took us to the well known City Light Books, which only sells the classics and well known books. Todd and Jess especially had a right look through the store, seeing as they are both big readers, and that Jess has to read 30+ books before she heads back to University.
I tried to think of some famous authors whose books I have always been interested in reading, but could only think of Mark Twain at that moment. When I finally found his books, I seriously consider buying The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but ended up putting the book back.
When I joined the others outside, I tell them how close I came to buying a book, and Todd, Jess and Becca tell me I should. So I went back in and did.

When I stepped out of the store again, Steve, Zack, Kylie, Scott, Becca and Annabel headed off for some clubbing along with Zack’s sister and her boyfriend. Zack told us before we reached San Francisco that she had moved here only recently, and that he couldn’t wait to meet up with her again.
Sarah, Joanna and Kristina headed back to the hotel, which just left Jess, Todd and I to head to the Cheesecake Factory. Some of the others went there the night before, but I didn’t so wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.
We headed up the elevator to the top floor where the restaurant is, and after waiting 40 minutes we got seated outside on the terrace. It was around 11pm now, and the weather was far from warm, so much so there were heaters on the light stands around every table.
Having looked at the wonderful selection we chose a cheesecake each, in my case I had to order Adam’s Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple just because it had my name in it. When I ordered, I stupidly tried to make a joke about having my cheesecake which the waiter, who incidentally was called Adam as well, didn’t understand, not knowing my name.

As we waited, I came under scrutiny from Jess and then Todd about my personal life. Which I was actually enjoying.
It was good to talk like this again, and I was a little surprised how involved Todd had got tonight. Truth was, as surprised as I am that they started asking about me, I didn’t want the talk to end.
Jess also revealed during the talk, that she and her boyfriend had broken up, so she sympathised as she was feeling a little lonely as well recently.

When the cheesecake arrived, it was so delicious I wolfed mine down, and soon after we headed back to the hotel. We had another long day in front of us tomorrow.

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