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Published: June 26th 2017
Several weeks before this trip we sat down and planned on what we would like to see in San Francisco. We trawled web sites for ideas and Roisin came across Muir Woods. This is a national park across the bay from San Francisco. It is the home of the world-renowned redwood tree.
Normally we make our own way to places if possible. Research showed that buses from San Francisco to Sausalito, a small Mediterranean style town across the bay, ran very frequently. However, the shuttle running the 9 miles between Sausalito and Muir Woods only goes at Weekends. Today is Thursday!! Oh, and it only goes on weekends during summer up to 2
nd September. Today is Thursday 28
th September!!! A taxi could have been another option but you would need to arrange with the taxi driver to pick you up at an agreed time as the entrance to the national park is in the middle of nowhere. My ongoing battles with taxi drivers must put me on their 50 most wanted list!! I would be walking in to their hands to fall for that old chestnut!!
As another alternative, whilst trawling the blogs of travel Pod I came across
a couple who were recommended (by the hire company!!) that bicycle is a great way of getting around to see San Francisco. Ha! You're having a laugh aren't you? Even if you are not well travelled or live in a hole, it is a well-known and well-documented fact that San Francisco is a trifle on the hilly side just as much as the Sahara desert is a trifle on the sandy side!!
However this couple must live in a very deep hole!! The article kept my interest because they cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, So far so good. They then cycled further on to Muir Woods as they were told it was only '
up' the road. ‘UP' being the operative word!! Needless to say, as the journey progressed, more pushing and less riding became apparent. The day ended sitting on a grassy verge in agony and tears.
The first clue would be to look across the bay from San Francisco. The presence of steep rolling hills should have been a giveaway!! I agree that there are flat bits in San Francisco. However, there are flat bits at the top of the hills and flat bits
at the bottom but to get from one to another you have to negotiate the hills!! Luckily, I hadn't thought of hiring bicycles before we decided to pre-book a half-day tour on line prior to arriving in SF.
A coach met us at 8:15am outside our hotel. The drivers name was Kenneth, a very talkative but instantly likeable person. We were sat immediately behind the driver so it felt that everything he said was directed at us. He referred to us as ‘
Hey, English', and had a habit of talking to himself and making observations fractionally loud enough so everyone could hear what a funny chap he was. I'm sure it was just all part of the service. Kenneth was just driving the feeder coach. He picked up at several more hotels before dropping us at the office where we had to take our voucher and swap it for a tour ticket.
We were given a pink ticket and directed to the coach from whence we had come!! It was Kenny's coach!! This should be fun!!
We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is suspended 250 feet above the water and the towers a further
500 feet from the road. Visibility was poor today as the fog was lingering around the strait known as the Golden Gate. The strait is so named because in 1846 it reminded Captain John C. Fremont of a harbour in Istanbul that he had seen by the name of
Chrysoceras or
Golden Horn. He decided to name the strait
Chrysopylae. This was a bit of a mouthful and as it meant ‘Golden Gate' anyway people asked him why he didn't call it that in the first place!!
The route took us up some sleep inclines and I couldn't help thinking about those poor cyclists! On several of the passes, there was (allegedly!) a sheer drop but as the mist seemed to be persistent, it was difficult to tell. Kenny muttered to himself: ‘
If y'all a little scared just do what I do and close yer eyes!!!' We had 1 ¼ hours to roam freely around the woods. There are walkways and different colour coded paths that take you to different parts of this national monument. The path we chose was relatively flat and at just over 1 mile, it took us about 40 minutes. We had time
to marvel at some of the tallest trees in the world growing up to 250 feet tall and 14 feet wide. Most of the trees age between 800-1000 years old.
It was 11:30. We headed back along the same route. The fog was now starting to lift and we could see down in to the canyon. Nope my mistake!! Just as you think there is a break in the low cloud cover, some more rolls in and takes its place!! The coach headed down in to Sausalito. This town with an inhabitants of only about 7,500 takes it's name from the Spanish for ‘
Little Willow'. The claim to fame of Sausalito is it is where Otis Redding wrote his hit ‘Dock of the bay'. He obviously wrote it on a clear day. If it was a day like today, it could have turned out so very different.
Lyndesfarne's The Fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine could have been penned by the American blues artist and titled: ‘The fog on the bay is OK, OK!!! As it turned out, a classic was born with haunting lyrics and enchanting melody. Oh! and Otis Redding wrote a nice song
as well!!!
The main street of Sausalito contained a variety of shops, stores and boutiques; from antiques shops to designer outlets. Even the souvenir shops sold classy tat!! But at the end of the day whether tasteful or cheap, tat is tat and just something else to gather dust!! One art gallery we came across sold nothing but artwork from Dr Seuss!!! Now call me old fashioned but paying $2,700 for a framed ‘Cat in the Hat' is a little on the extravagant side. It is after all a cartoon. A surreal carton at that so the artist doesn't have to draw things in proportion!!! No photography was allowed in this art gallery. Not too sure why they think we'd want to take photos. You can rent most of the Dr. Seuss DVD's for practically nothing!!
This is where we said goodbye to our host, Kenneth. We had decided to finish our tour here and take the ferry back across the bay to San Francisco. We weren't the only passengers to have the same idea because by the amount of dollars that were thrust into Kenny's palm, he was driving home with only a half empty coach but
a jacket full of cash!! He had earned every cent of his tips and both Roisin and I agreed this had been one of the most enjoyable excursions we had encountered in recent years.
Across the bay, San Francisco was still shrouded in mist. It had quite an eerie feeling especially seeing the odd yacht sail across the bay with the fog-encased city as a backdrop. While waiting for the ferry to depart, the top of one of the Bridge towers became visible from behind the hills that sheltered Sausalito from falling victim to
‘the fog'!! The journey back to the hotel was via the Hyde cable car. We were unlucky to be one of the last ones on this particular ride so was squashed inside, gripping on to my rucksack with one hand while trying to balance myself, holding on to the cable car safety strap with the other. Now the cable car can either be a most joyous experience or the most uncomfortable experience. However you feel before, during and after the ride, it is an experience!! We have, on more than one occasional found the San Francisco cable car to be an experience never forgotten,
this time, however, it is an experience we'd want to forget!! Up and down some of the steepest hills in the city, the cable car jerked its way along Hyde Street, turning at Washington before stopping for 5 minutes while a shift change could be made!! Finally, a few stops down (and up) Powell it was our turn to get off!!
The sun was going down and the wind was starting to howl. Our final bow should have taken us a few blocks to attend a ghost tour. This came highly recommended. We were starting to feel the pace (but nothing a 15 day cruise couldn't mend!!) The weather was not ideal for spending 90 minutes listening to stories of ghouls and phantoms. With regret, we decided to give this a miss.
This, our 2
nd time in San Francisco has been equally enjoyable if not completely different from the last. We managed to do and see almost everything we had planned. The people are so friendly (even the homeless ones!!) They seem to have a genuine nature about themselves. Through excessive use of the public transport system, we have leaned a little more of the lay out of
the city and managed to get our bearings of where everything is in relation to everything else!! So, would we do anything differently when we return?? Too bloody right!!! We wouldn't take as much stuff with us and we'd make sure we booked a hotel near a Metro Station!!!
It is the long awaited embarkation day tomorrow. Check in is not until 1pm so time for one more ride on the cable car me thinks!!!
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Andrew
non-member comment
Nice fisheye shot of the big trees!