Category Archives: United States

Alcatraz

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I didn’t think any visit to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to Alcatraz.  I think the prison is famous worldwide.  To get there you need to take a ferry.  The website suggested pre-booking, and I did, but it didn’t seem necessary at Pier 41.  Perhaps in the high season it is a good idea to pre-book.

When you arrive there are tours available that give the history of the island.  I found the ranger to me quite informative.  If you choose to take a tour, it takes about one hour.  After this you can go and see the cell blocks.  Once you enter you can get a free audio guide that walks you around the prison.
These are the showers at the enterance.  There is not much privacy here.
The audio guide talks about escape attempts, specific prisoners and guards lives.  It was interesting to walk around and listen to the stories.  One interesting thing I found us that San Francisco downtown is clearly visible from 3 small windows in the call block.  I’m told that on New Years Eve, prisoners could see and hear parties going on across the bay.  Certainly I can think of better places to spend NYE than Alcatraz though!
Once you are finish you can walk around the island for as long as you like, you can take any ferry back, but I would recommend not missing the last one.

One of the interesting parts of Alcatraz that I did not know is that after the military stopped using it as a prison it became a base for an aboriginal movement.  This water tower was apparently rusted through so it was sanded down and repainted, but they found the decendents of the original “artists” to repainted the messages. 

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

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On a lovely afternoon in San Francisco I decided to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  The goal was to get to Sausalito and take the ferry back.  It’s also very popular to bike across.  There are lots of bike rental places around Pier 41 (and actually all over the city) if you wanted to get a bike.
If you want to cross by foot you can take the bus to the Golden Gate visitors centre on the San Francisco side.  It’s right where the toll road starts.  The visitor centre has good views of the bridge and has water and bathrooms.  It also sells souvenirs.
Crossing the bridge from here will take 45 minutes by foot.  If you continue on to Sausalito you should figure about 2 hours for the whole hike.  It’s mostly flat and there is water on both sides of the bridge.
The bridge has a separate walkway that is shared by cyclists and pedestrians. This means that you don’t have to dodge traffic as you cross.  Unfortunately, the bridge is also famous for people jumping from it.  There are emergency phones along the way and next year the city will install a net under the bridge to catch people.
Once you get to the middle, you will get some great views of Alcatraz and downtown.  You can see the ferries running back and forth.  I got a very clear day which made for good pictures.  I actually wanted some fog to take some interesting pictures, but I got fantastic weather instead, so I won’t complain.
Once you get off the bridge at the other side you basically do a U-turn to go under the bridge and then the hiking trail continues.  Eventually it joins a local road (with a sidewalk) as it enters Sausalito. This is quite a nice town, but is quite touristy.
Most people return to the city by ferry (as I did), however you can easily take Lyft or Uber from here (they will add the toll to your bill) or Golden Gate Transit.  Golden Gate Transit will drive you back across the bridge.  Their busses are quite nice.  They have large seats and free wifi.

Lombard Street

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After doing quite a lot of walking today in San Francisco I discovered that pretty much everything is up hill! Probably the most famous example of this is Lombard Street.

Now, Lombard Street is fairly steep to begin with, but this one block section has a series of 8 hair pin turns to get down it.  It’s one way and, as you can see in the picture, there were a certain amount of cyclists going down it as well as cars.
Most of the cars seemed to be tourists.  I would suspect most locals avoid the route as the amount of tourists probably make it a slow drive 🙂 However, it’s very pretty with the flowers and the homes at each side are private residences. 
To walk, the path up either side has steps cut into it (although only on this section).  I walked here from Coit Tower which is a nice walk on a sunny day.  I took the bus back to Union Square.  That’s a fun experience going up and down hills too!
Today was really clear and from the top of the street there is quite a new view of the Golden Gate Bridge.