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San Francisco
That iconic Golden Gate Bridge " All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware." Pearson International Airport, Toronto, is huge and one might say ..so what! But it is that big and that impressive that it is worthy of comment. And it is "home" to Air Canada which has also latched onto the airline industries subtle extortion game. Bear in mind that we were checking in on an international flight to a destination in the USA. Well, here's the thing. They found it perfectly normal and commercially acceptable to charge $25.00 per bag checked in. An absolute first for me!
Got over it and of far more importance than figuring out the meaning of "extortion" was the destination on that day. San Francisco! The mere mention of this name evokes a treasure trove of memories for many. These thoughts would differ but for us "baby boomers", this city has a deeper meaning. Keep in mind that the "baby boomer" generation is defined as anyone born between 1946 and 1964 which means that most of you "young" folk reading these epistles are slap bang in this generation which gave so much to our modern World. The Beatles, pot, dope, hippies, make love
San Francisco
Two ageing hippies wondering where the years went to...? not war, the first anti establishment protests, Timothy Leary (is dead) and a whole lot more. Despite being a weird and perhaps whacky generation, interesting to note some of the listed "baby boomer" defining characteristics....(1)Strong work ethic (2)Goal centered (3)Competitive (4)Mentally focussed (5)Team oriented and a few more which, on balance, should make us feel a sense of having made a tiny contribution to this crazy World but maybe wondering how to reconcile these fine attributes with what went on in the "naughty sixties." Some 25 million people visited San Francisco in 2015 and I would guess many would have gone there to check out those roots from bygone years.
Our lodgings,The Club Quarters Hotel, was ideally located in the Financial District close to Fisherman's Wharf and that's where we met up with fellow travellers, Bobby and Phil Craig. A long, leisurely walk along the Fisherman's Wharf promenade takes one past numerous piers which were used in years gone by for multiple shipping purposes but today serve the ferries which carry thousands of people across the many bays to little hamlets located around the shoreline. Keep in mind that we were in California very early in the summer season,
San Francisco
The bike gang. Girls at this stage loaded up with nervous energy but they made it! so it was astonishing to see the huge numbers of strollers enjoying the striking beauty of the city skyline behind and the shimmering expanse of water making up San Francisco Bay in the foreground. Anything goes in this city and we spotted many strangely garbed dudes and chicks clearly undecided on their gender or which planet they were actually on. Nobody bats an eyelid.
There is plenty to do and see in this fascinating city and we ticked many of the tourist "must see, must do" boxes. But it all boils down to the memories that will linger in the mind and some of these were as follows:
The Golden Gate. Probably the most talked about gate anywhere and rightly so. Rather than just gaze at this magnificent structure strutting gracefully across the bay, we hired bikes and set off on a 15km cycle which put us onto the bridge. Our two girls were a bundle of nervous energy as we eased onto the cycle path surrounded buy cars, buses and trams. Fortunately motorists in San Francisco do their best to preserve cyclists and after an easy, flat ride along the shoreline shared with hundreds of other cyclists,
San Francisco
Great view of the San Francisco skyline from the ferry transporting many weary cyclists. we arrived at the entrance to the bridge. A special cyclist path enables cycling the full 2.7 km length of the bridge although one has to be on full alert with cyclists hurtling in the opposite direction. Superb experience and the adrenaline rush experienced singing "When you're going to San Francisco" (Scott McKenzie) in my head, almost felt like being back in the late 60's. Well, sort of! Once off the bridge, a gentle little trundle down to Sausalito where the reward was a fine meal washed down with some really good Californian wine. Any thought of cycling back simply evaporated and led to a unanimous decision to board a ferry and cross back to Fisherman's Wharf.
"Whackyville." Sue and I boarded one of those old wooden trams which rattle along their own tracks in the center of the road with a bell ringing as some sort of alert to traffic. Destination was Nob Hill which is one of San Francisco's "Seven Hills" where some railroad big shots built mansions and earned themselves the title of "Nobs". We set off on foot walking through a fascinating neighbourhood punctuated by some very interesting and different architectural home designs. Lots of
San Francisco
The city gardens resplendent in their Spring colours. renovation going on which is always an indication of people moving into an area. On route we drifted into an area which still looked as though it was desperately clinging to the hippie, nutter period of the late 60's and 70's. Hard to describe some of the whacked out folk sharing the pavements with us and we both detected a strong whiff of the wondrous green stuff which was, and still is, much loved. Marijuana is being grown commercially in California and will, from 1 June, be legal. And then to cap it all we entered the Golden Gate Park which is a large urban park about a fifth larger than Central Park in NYC. Bearing in mind that Spring had actually arrived in San Francisco, our stroll through this magnificent park was a brilliant splash of colour with many plants in full bloom. Sue's fitbit had by now registered close to 6 km of walking and the inevitable thirst needed to be dealt with. A quick bus ride downtown delivered us back to the Wharf area where there is an incredible array of eateries to deal with the problem of thirst and hunger.
Homeless people. Now, this is
San Francisco
A very strange dude in high heels who kept crossing the road doing his level best to get squashed by a bus, tram or car. not a negative comment but simply reality. We had seen homeless folk in NYC, Washington but nothing like the numbers in San Francisco. It is quite disturbing to see old men and women kipping on the pavement in the heart of the financial district and basically wherever one goes in the city and surrounds. Not sure what the solution is as clearly many of these people are not living the "American dream." In a conversation with one resident about homeless people, she stated that there are estimated to be about 6000 in SF and many are quite comfortable with their sad state due to social support. Sadly, many are US Army veterans who may well have been abandoned for one reason or the other.
Club Quarters Hotel. This was our lodging for the three day sojourn in SF. Nothing unusual and it had a really good location for accessing all the places of interest. The real gem in this hotel's crown was "Happy Hour" which we thoroughly exploited due to a vitally important fact. The grog was free!! So we made absolutely certain that we were back at said hotel for sundowners in the happy knowledge we were not shelling out $8 for a glass of vino.
On our last evening, glasses were raised as we toasted our time in San Francisco. All we lacked were "those flowers in our hair" but based on what we had seen, there are some seriously ageing hippies doing their damndest to keep our "Baby Boomer" heritage alive.
The next morning would see us setting off on multiple destinations.
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Algy Prilor
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Tims and Bobs
Keep up the blog Tims ,really interesting. we off to Hong kong ,Vietnam and Cambodia on Thursday for 2 weeks so speak after. algy and Sue