Escape to the Rock!!

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Chris and Roisin were up this morning at 07:30. Their plan today was to visit Alcatraz and then take a stroll through Fisherman's Wharf stopping off at the famous sea lions basking in the sun. As it turned out, the weather was a glorious 78ºF so the seals should be out in force today.

After the obligatory bagel and coffee at Centos deli, the cable car conveniently ran past this establishment that would take them directly to Fisherman's Wharf. From there is would be only a short walk to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. Chris and Roisin were warned that this tour is normally full of (English) tourists. The queues for tickets could be quite lengthy so one is recommended to get there early to ensure a place on the ferry. Not one to back out of a challenge, Chris completely ignored this piece of sound advice but as a compromise, bought the tickets on-line prior to departing for the USA!!!

At 09:15 Chris and Rosin had noticed that the cable cars were already busting to capacity on the way to Fisherman's Wharf. This cable car was coming from the direction of Union Square, an area of San Francisco where many hotels are situated so that figures!!

The slot they were booked on was the 10:30 sailing so there was plenty of time. They walked down the brew (lol!), through the edge of China Town and on in to Little Italy. It was only that Roisin pointed out that all the lamp posts where painted in the green, red and white tri-colour and the number of Fiat's parked up you would notice you had entered this district of San Fran. Oh, and that every other restaurant was called Luigi's (instead of The Golden Dragon!!)

They reached the Ferry Terminal at 10am and made straight for the queue to board the 10:30 across to the Rock. Chris only spotted 1 football shirt during the 20 minutes or so in the queue. The lack of football shirts is always a good sign!! Chris could see that there were English accents a plenty in the queue but he also detected an equal number of German and French in there as well.

Another piece of advice given to Chris and Roisin was again spot on. The Golden Gate Bridge is always shrouded in mist. This mist is created when warm, moist air blows from the central Pacific Ocean across the cold water of the California Current, which flows just off the coast. This creates a cool, moist wind along the coast. The water is often cool enough to lower the temperature of the air to the dewpoint, causing fog generation. The architectural and engineering feat of the Golden Gate Bridge, an icon to the city, should be a joy to behold. Chris thinks that David Copperfield woz 'in da house' because as the ferry pulled out in to the bay the whole feckin' bridge had disappeared!!!

Alcatraz is exactly as it is portrayed in the films..a rock! A ranger was waiting to greet everybody as they came ashore. He proceeded to tell them the do's and don'ts and made various attempts of humour by telling punters that there were 363 toilets on the island…one for each cell and none of them work!!! ‘So if you need to use the bathroom, don't even think of having a crafty one in C-Block!!' How everyone laughed!!

The walk up to the cellblock was not as strenuous as it looked from the bay. It was Roisin who led the way, as Chris wanted to take the train up to the top. There was an excellent audio tour included in the visit. This told of the story of Edward G Robinson, George Raft and Clint Eastwood aka Al Capone, "Machine gun" Eddie and Robert “Birdman” Stroud!!!

Now whether the guidebook was just being PC or just a plain understatement it mentioned that prisoners remained on Alcatraz until they were no longer considered to be disruptive. DISRUPTIVE?? A Small Child Can Be Disruptive!! Extortionists and armed robbers with the occasional murderer thrown in are more than just a minor inconvenience. I can hear the Governor of a corrective facility now: ‘Those Kray Twins, you've gotta laugh! Boys will be boys. They're only being disruptive!! They'll think twice when they feel the back of my hand!'

On returning back to the mainland, Chris and Roisin walked the short distance to Pier 39 in the heart of Fisherman's Wharf. The crowds were starting to become denser (I don't mean their mental capacity, either!!) The seals were in their usual speck. Well their usual speck since 1989. Apparently they migrated to Pier 39 after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

One shouldn't visit Fisherman's Wharf without sampling the world famous Bread Bowl Clam Chowder. Unfortunately, the word hadn't reached either Chris or Roisin and they completely blanked it and headed to catch the Cable car at Victorian Park. This, by coincidence happened to be the exact same time another 500 people decided to catch the cable car!!! After 20 minutes queuing, they were still at least 3 cable cars away from boarding. The heat was belting down and yet against the odds, Roisin had a cunning plan!! They headed for the F tram, a 5-minute walk away. This tram travelled down the Embarcadero, AWAY FROM THE WHARF!!! They then changed and took the cable car back up California Avenue. This was a much more pleasant, and by all accounts, faster mode.

The evening was spent chilling in their room and taking a leisurely evening meal in the hotel restaurant. The soup of the day was announced. Chris declined saying that if the waitress didn't even recommend the soup, why should he choose it? When asked to explain himself, Chris pointed out that the waitress said, “the Soup was asparagus – it's crap!”

“It's asparagus AND CRAB”, Roisin replied!!

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