USA - San Francisco

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Hi there and good morning from San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day and our final stay.


Did you know that there is a severe shortage of supermarket trolleys in San Francisco? Well if there isn't there should be. Why.

Our initial impression of San Francisco when we arrived in the early evening was that there are a lot of homeless people around here and they all appear to have shopping trolley's to push their personal processions in. They sleep in doorways, camp out on park benches and lay about on sidewalks. All this within walking distance of our hotel and the main tourist area.

For information we stayed in a very nice hotel called The Whitcomb on Market Street. The hotel building has a long history and is outstanding with a really nice interior.

It is obvious that the American dream does not work for everybody. If you speak to the locals they tell that the state does have a programme for the homeless but many do not wish to take part. They tell you that San Francisco has a serious drug problem and many of homeless are taking Heroin and Crack Cocaine, but it is obvious that many of them also have mental health problems or learning difficulties. Nancy will tell you that for the first time in the States she has been very apprehensive about going out at night, even though our hotel was in a relatively built up area.

Moving on now. On our way from Fiji to San Francisco we had to change planes in Los Angeles. We tell you all that if you plan to come to California then avoid this airport like the plague. You are treated appallingly by the staff, they are rude, unwelcoming and off hand. The locals also tell that they avoid this airport whenever possible. We also have to tell you that if this was the first time that we had visited the States then after our experiences at LAX it likely that we would not come back.

We have found the Californians a different kettle of fish from the other parts of the USA we have visited. They appear to be more arrogant, snobbish and standoffish. Obviously there were exceptions, some of them are extremely helpful to tourists who get lost or can't find their way about the city.

We, of course, have done all the expected tourist things like Alcatraz (Spanish for Albatross), the Cable cars, Fishermans Wharf, Chinatown where again Nancy found some very nice Christmas presents. Nancy's favourite was Alcatraz, with its very well organised tour of the island and its prison and the Cable Car which went very noisily, up and down San Francisco's many huge hills. Unfortunately it was raining on this one day (l know that this is really upsetting to you all in the UK, but we made the best of it) and the Bay was shrouded in Mist and low cloud. It certainly did not distract from the day. The locals did tell us that apparently these conditions pervail quite often in the Bay Area.

Interestingly enough the subject of earthquakes has come up a few time here in San Francisco. When the locals talk about earthquakes it is always when the next earthquake comes, not, if. A lot of the tall buildings in main business area are covered over with a thick plastic covering which they hope will stop the glass in the buildings from landing on the street below. We will see when the next earthquake comes!

Well we have now come to the end of our journey around the world and we have to say, with the odd exception, that we have really really enjoyed the experience. We are not sure that we would repeat it but we have met some really nice people, seen some absolutely beautiful places, but you know what? There is no place like home.

Onwards to Riga, Latvia and some really nice warm weather!!!!

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