Very long ten minutes in San Francisco (26.-28.2.09)

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The bay area and the pacific coast give San Francisco a very special atmosphere. The city is surrounded by water with brilliant views on the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge and the terrain is hilly with a lot of green areas. Everybody knows about the cable cars that cross the hills or the winding lane of a short part of Lombard road. It was my third time in San Francisco and there is always something to see. We had a look at down town and watched the businessman in their lunch break in one of the coffee shops or dailies. We bumped by coincidence into the Wells Fargo bank which has a fascinating exhibition about the first regular horse coach service from the East to the West coast. The journey from St. Louis to San Francisco took nonstop 21 days over bumpy streets with not much sleep and black beans and coffee as the only supplies. These were the gold rush days, the start of Wells Fargo and the rise of San Francisco. The museum had an original coach and you could sit in it and watch on a screen the passing landscape and feel like in the Wild West times.
We went later to Telegraph hill which has brilliant views over the bay area and afterwards to close by Fisherman’s wharf. This was when I suddenly realized that our backpack was missing. We were so relaxed and admired the views over the bay that I forgot to pick up the back pack behind me. We just drove off! It contained the beloved notebook of Yuki, both our passports and her purse. Ten minutes had passed since we left and it was lying on a bench on the middle of the Telegraph hill viewing square! My head had pictures of police securing the area for a suspected bomb or a clerk at the watch tower who just waited smiling for us behind the lost & found counter. It took again ten minutes to drive back and I started to imagine scenarios how to obtain new passports. Neither of us spoke. We spiraled up the street until the viewing square with the benches came into sight. Yes, there was still my back pack lying around. Nobody had it noticed and it still contained everything. Nothing was stolen! We were very relieved.
The Golden State Park is one of the nicest places in town. It is a huge park that stretches several km along town until it ends at the Pacific coast and is home to some of the nicest museums and botanical garden. We parked our car at a close by neighborhood with bright painted houses and walked to the park. The first building that came in sight was the tower of the new constructed De Yong Museum designed by a Swiss company. It was famous for its challenging design and a huge American art collection. It contained art everywhere like an outdoor museum. There was a sculpture garden, green fern blending with the brown holed steel and an artificial crack at the main entrance reminding on the fault line creating the infamous earth quakes. We were lucky since Friday evening was open door and party night at the museum. The atmosphere was fantastic. There was a floor with a stage for dancers, cocktails, a tower observatory and a terrace with more sculptures. The other attraction was the people of San Francisco. All differently dressed and of mixed ages. We wandered around a special Yves Saint Laurent exhibition, discovered the building and watched the people. It was a pleasant way to spend the Friday evening and a perfect “Good Bye” from San Francisco.


Practicalities:
Wells Fargo Museum free
De Yong Museum Friday evening party free, exhibition floor 10 US$
Botanical garden donation at entrance
Accommodation: American Best Value Inn Lombard Rd. 46 US$ weekday, 59 US$ weekend + tax

check roomsaver.com for big discounts all over California and neighbor states, some information centers provide hotel discount brochures; it is possible to find in the low season (until April) standard accommodation for around 50 US$ per night for two persons; tax of about 10% is additional; weekends are often 10-20 US$ more.

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