Our round the world trip (27): two tours in San Francisco
Arriving at our San Francisco hotel after crossing the Pacific, the first priority was a little sleep in mid afternoon. Then it was out around Fisherman’s Wharf for something to eat. We played safe and went to a very traditional American diner called “Denny’s”, but we had forgotten just how enormous many of the servings are in the USA. Vee was provided with a huge helping of hash browns with her omelette that she could not manage at all, while Roger’s banana split was literally twice the size of any in Europe and even ‘the king of deserts’ could not finish it.
Strolling back, we jumped when what looked like a bush on the side of the pavement (sorry, sidewalk) suddenly opened up and a black hobo holding two large branches shouted at us: “Waaah!! Be a man! It’s only a black man in a bush!” What was all this about? We watched him do it again to some other unsuspecting tourists: “If I’ve made yuh holla, give me a dollar”. Only in America …
Once back in our room, the jet-lag kicked in and we decided to rest our eyes for another while. When we opened them again, it was four hours later – and the evening time when normal SF goes to sleep.
Day 28 (Monday) started with our first hotel breakfast in the States for many years. The bad news is that in the USA, unlike most other countries, breakfast is not included, so you have to pay for every individual item and provide a tip of typically 20%. The good news is that the choice of food is amazing – Vee had bacon scramble and Roger chose Eggs Benedict.
Through the hotel concierge, we booked 48 hour tickets at US$ 100 (£66) each with City Sightseeing San Francisco which does a range of hop on – hop off loop tours, so the day was a tale of two tours – and two tour guides with great tales and amazingly the same marriage. Meanwhile the day started overcast and cloudy but soon became bright and sunny.
The first tour was the Downtown one which lasts an hour and a half if you don’t leave the bus. Our guide was the red-hatted moustachioed Leo who delivered his commentary in the super-fast style beloved of those who cover horse races for television. We saw such famous sights as Coit Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid and well-known locations like Union Square, Market Street, Chinatown, Little Italy and Washington Square, all of which gave us an introductory overview to this wonderful city of 1.7 million.
After hot drinks and pastries in the “Waterfront Bakery” (run by a Persian who left Iran 30 years ago), we took the Golden Gate Bridge/Sausalito tour which, with our break in Sausalito, filled an afternoon of three and a half hours. Our guide – who was also our driver – this time was “the fat lady” called Betsy who turned out to be Leo’s wife and was even louder and funnier than her husband of 34 years.
Betsy described San Francisco as “the most liberal city in the United States” (she mentioned the annual nude cyclers event) and the place for “the best people-watching anywhere in the world” (she identified “the bushman” from yesterday as Greg who has been named “street performer of the year”).
The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937 and it is 1.7 miles long. Betsy stopped at the southern (city) end of the bridge in case anyone wanted to walk it but nobody did (Roger walked it in 1970). Apparently, since it was built, some 1,700 have “strolled off” (her words) the orange-coloured structure and only 30 of them have survived. She stopped again at the northern end of the bridge for fabulous views back to the city skyline.
Sausalito – or sarsaparilla, as Vee jokingly called it – is a very wealthy community of 6,000 just north of the Golden Gate Bridge where Roger & Vee left the bus for a couple of hours to enjoy hot drinks and cakes at “Cafe Tutti”, browse the expensive shops, and savour more stunning views of San Francisco across the bay. Mysteriously the originally clear view of the city was suddenly replaced by a line of fog which rose from water level to almost the tops of the skyscrapers before melting away almost as quickly as it had appeared. The phenomenon made for a neat set of photos.
In the evening, we went upmarket for our dinner compared to yesterday by strolling round to Ghirardelli Square where we found an excellent seafood restaurant called “McCormick & Kuleto’s”. We both had New England clam chowder followed by grilled swordfish which were delicious.
April 2nd, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Hello Roger and Vee,
Well… what can I say? What an incredible adventure! I will look forward to seeing your photos. Enjoy yourself and be careful of that man in the bush!
Love Spence
April 2nd, 2013 at 4:12 pm
Thanks, Spence. Really looking forward to seeing you again. Lots of adventures to share and photos to show. Then we have to see a film together.