San Francisco

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33 Hours after leaving Winter Park I finally arrived in San Francisco at 9pm. Caught the connecting bus to the downtown area then I had to walk a number of blocks uphill to my hotel. Found a place that does fish and chips and had that for dinner, the first in a long time.

The next morning I walked down to the Yerba Buena Gardens, which is a tiny little park in amongst all the buildings of downtown. I had a look at the Martin Luther King Jr memorial and waterfall located in the park.
Then I caught a tram towards the pier area. I started at Pier 1, where I sorted out my Amtrak tickets for Los Angeles, and then walked along the pier route. I took a look inside the market plaza and got some lunch. I bought a really good crispy chicken sandwich from a deli and went outside to eat on a bench in the dock. A huge seagull flew down and perched itself on the railings in front of me, hoping that I´d spare him some of my meal. Unfortunately for him the sandwich was just too good and he ended up flying off still hungry. I walked until I reached Pier 33 where the boat to Alcatraz left from. Caught the 1.20pm ferry to the island where you are free to walk around the majority of it by yourself. It´s a lot smaller than I expected. I guess that´s from watching the film "The Rock" where Nicholas Cage seems to be running around forever. In actual fact you can jog across from one end to the other in under a minute. I also took the audio tour of the cellhouse, which was home to many famous convicts such as Al Capone. On the way round I saw one of the cells from which three men escaped by making papermache imitations of their heads (they had the actual head set up in the bed). The story was depicted in the Clint Eastwood movie "Escape from Alcatraz". The escapees managed to make it into the water but it is unknown whether they made it to land because the tides are so strong surrounding the island.
Back on the mainland I continued all the way along the pierside. Then I went up the steepest road I´d ever seen. It seemed to go on forever as well. My quads have never had such a good workout. When I eventually reached the top I was actually wheezing. Man am I unfit, when I was younger I probably would have run the whole way up, and then down the other side as well.

The next day I went for a long walk up to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, one of the highest points in San Francisco. The tower was built in 1933 and has an observation deck accessible by lift. At the top you get some beautiful views of the city and surrounding landmarks such as Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Photos

Seagull
with his eye on my lunch

Alcatraz Island
The Rock

Alcatraz
Cellhouse, lighthouse, and Wardens House

Golden Gate Bridge
seen from Alcatraz (just about, if u squint)

Jail Cell
about 6 by 9