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Published: July 23rd 2011
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The last day in San Francisco was the quietest one in terms of things done. The truth is that we were all quite tired as we had done lots over the last few days. We had to get up really early as our only chance to get some tickets for Alcatraz was to get there before 8 and see if there were any cancellations.
So we got up at about 6:30, got showered and dressed and caught the SF cable car from just in front of our hotel. The cable car is fun although quite expensive, $6 one way. It gets extremely busy with queues of up to 1 hour or more so my advice is to get there very early in the morning, we didn’t have to queue at all, or late in the evening.
Anyway, the cable car finishes at Fisherman’s wharf which was our destination. At that time there was hardly any movement, mainly locals going to work or setting things up for another day’s work. We walked from pier 39 all the way to pier 33 where the Alcatraz ticket booth is, just to arrive to see a massive queue of about 70 people. So that
was our Alcatraz chance gone. It’s a shame as we had plenty of time to book. I knew about it and was very close to book in several occasions but in the end I didn’t so it’s only us to blame. If you want to go to Alcatraz book online a couple of weeks in advance and you’ll be fine.
So we made our way back to Fisherman’s wharf and had some continental breakfast. Walked around the commercial area but most shops were still closed. At the end of the wharf there are amazing views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge and we took a few nice pictures. Then we went around to see some sea lions but there were only a couple of them so we starting walking back towards the cable car stop as it’s on the way of our next destination Lombard Street to see the famous stretch with 8 turns in just one block. It’s quite nice but I guess much better if you drive it.
From there we decided to walk back to the hotel. It took us about 25-30 minutes but it’s a nice walk through North Beach and Chinatown. At
the hotel we chilled for a bit and sorted a few things that we had to arrange. We then went to do some shopping. Henar and Ozy wanted to go to Macys and I wanted to go to some other shops so we arrange to meet up in an hour and a half. I went to check the Apple store, Levis store and Niketown. We met up again and went to check the sales of Oakley where I bought a nice polo shirt for only $24. Bargain!
We had decided to have pizza that night so we flag a cab back to North Beach. As it was still quite early we sat down in one of the cafes for a little bite and a drink. Can’t remember the name but they have some cakes to die for. I had carrot cake and it was delicious. We then had to print our boarding passes so we went to a local internet shop and the owners recommended a couple of nice pizza places. We went to check them out but unfortunately they were all closed. Apparently quite a few pizza restaurants close on Monday in North Beach. We finally found a
small place called L’osteria del forno where we had a very nice Italian pizza. The place is own by two Italian women and has won a few dinning awards. We were quite happy with the meal and the service.
After dinner we walked back to our hotel again and went for a couple of drinks in a bar in Powell st where there was a band playing live music. So after an hour we were knackered and we had to get up early again to go to the airport.
Our stay in San Francisco had come to an end. Great city, fascinating to explore and with so many places to eat, drink and hang around. Will definitely come back some day.
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