Alcatraz

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Alcatraz for me was the thing that i most wanted to see in San Francisco before i came, i had first seen the Clint Eastwood film when i was a young child and was always fascinated with the place.

We went there on the boat to the island and were able to go inside the cell block, where we experienced a 35 audio tour of the cell block. The audio tour was excellent and gave a great insight into the life that the prisoners in there had. Even those who were not in isolation must have faced gruelling days all of the time. The cells were small and cramped and all were single cells.

Toughest of all was "The Hole" in D Block where prisoners went when they were in isoaltion, they were shut in without light for up to 20 days and this musthave been psychologically gruelling.

You could go into cells, but could not shut the cell doors when you were in there, that would have been even better, particularly if the doors could have been shut in the hole.

Al Capones cell was seen and the most interesting biit for me were the cells of the guys that the Clint East wood film is based on, you could see the dummy heads that the prisoners made and also the dug out air grates that they used to escape. It is still not known what happened to the 3 guys that escaped that days as no bodies were ever found and they were never located.

The recreation area was seen too and this was nice.

Near the end of the time we were there Elaine and i lost each other and didn't find each other for ages, at leat we did eventually and it was great to have been to Alcatraz and seen it first hand, the audio tour incidently was the best audio tour i have ever had for anything ever.

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