Advertisement
Published: August 3rd 2013
Edit Blog Post
Day 2
Out of bed early after a decent sleep, breakfast at the apartment and then I decide to do the waterfront area.
The walk down town is really quick, it's only 10 minutes walking briskly. There's a chill in the overcast air. The streets are pretty busy, it looks a lot safer by day, I guess the number of regular citizens is much greater at this time so it dilutes the homeless numbers. I am surprised at the amount of trash lying around. It's all very grimy. Any way, head east towards Powell and then to Market. Buy a 7 day MUNI pass for $28 at Walgreens.
From here I make my way down to the Embarcadero on foot where the Ferry Building is situated. We visited last year but I thought it was worth another visit. Lots of fresh produce, coffee and small gift shops. There is also a very good bookshop there. You can walk out on to the piers for a great view of the Bay Bridge. Grab a quick bit of lunch and slowly make my way along the waterfront heading in the general direction of Ghiradelli Square. I figure that will be
a decent enough walk.
The weather has warmed up, sunny and windy. Observe the various boats. Lots of tourists around but it is not overly crowded down this end. Continuing on towards Pier 17 I happen upon TCHO chocolate factory. They do 2 chocolate tours a day at 1030 and 1400 that last for about an hour each. They explain the process of chocolate making from harvest to production, you tour the factory and have a tasting. There is a website to register interest, you need to pre-book. At this stage it is booked for the next 2 weeks but if you arrive before these times on the day you can join a standby list. They do some tastings in the gift shop if you are keen. The gift shop sells their slickly packaged product as well as hot and cold drinks and snacks.
Further on at Pier 27 the Americas Cup Park has set up shop. Right know the heats are running- Louis Vuitton Cup. The park is set up with various bars, coffee place, food areas, big screens, exhibits and entertainment areas. There were a couple of big boats docked there at the time.
Fishermans
wharf was pretty much the next zone- trillions of tourists, trillions of food vendors and trillions of tacky clothing and souvenier shops. There were also trillions of seagulls eating the discarded bread bowls that seem to be famous down here. At Pier 45 was an interesting exhibition of penny arcade machines. It is open everyday and is free. It is really interesting wandering around looking at the different styles - the palm readers, the singing showgirls, model farms and fairgrounds, etc. oh, and those pressed penny machines.
Hit ghiradelli square desperate for a coffee but settled for a hot chocolate - it is really busy- they have 4 outlets and they were pretty much all jammed. Free sample of the day was caramel truffle squares.
Caught the bus back into town from Hyde street and met Lachy at Westfield. We ate at M.Y.China which was surprisingly good. We shared a chefs platter of entrees, pork tacos and then had the bok choy and 1/2 Peking duck. The pancakes are different- small round fluffy ones like the dough in a pork bun rather than the flat style.
Walked back to the apartment ( briskly).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.446s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 15; qc: 135; dbt: 0.2126s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb