San Fran Day 3/ Bike Ride over the Golden Gate

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Today, our last day in San Fransisco, we had booked online last night to pick up 2 bikes from the ferry terminal. There is a popular cycle tour which is along the coast through fishermans wharf, past the battery, and up onto the Golden Gate bridge. Then across the bridge and down the other side into the small town of Sausalito for a lunch and paddle or shop, before getting the ferry back (with the bike) to San Fransisco. (Travellers tip.... by booking online the night before you can save 20% on the walk up price for the bikes).

It was Fleet Week so SF was particularly crowded. There was a navy brass band playing jazz as we went through Fishermans Wharf, so we stopped for a while to listen. It was really quite cloudy in SF, although the Golden Gate was visible through the mist. We could see the sun shining on the other side of the bay which gave us hope for our journey.....and sure enough, as we crossed the bridge and free wheeled down the long hill into Sausalito we were rewarded with beautiful sunny weather.

We had a little paddle, posted a package, sat and ate fish and chips, watched the Blue Arrows display fly over the bay. Then after a couple of hours we got on the ferry for the crossing back into SF. There are several companies in SF renting bikes and promoting this tour, and about three quarters of the passengers on the boat were accompanied by a bike, which makes an interesting loading problem for the staff, which they were obviously well used to.

Got off the ferrry at Fishermans Wharf where another band was playing. This time a really acomplished rock group called the Destroyers, all dressed in their navy uniforms. It seemed incongruous to Brits like us to see people dressed in military uniforms rocking out and so obviously enjoying themselves ; rather than parading around playing some staid old fashioned music. There was a big crowd watching and dancing at the front, so it was obviously good PR for the US forces. We enjoyed watching for a while before taking the bikes back.

Then back to Treasure Island, where we slept in the van outside the Airbnb (!) because we couldn't face driving out of SF in the semi dark through rush hour traffic to start our driving adventure down route 1.

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