Thursday 27th of May 2010 - San Francisco

As I said I awoke at about 04:30, which was quite good, stood outside and had a couple of cigarettes, then tidied, repacked my daypack and generally pootled around. Then went down to breakfast, awful bread, a surprisingly good croissant, lovely melon, and a valiant stab at an omlette that didn't really come off, to drink, tea, not great, but what does one expect?

Then popped to reception a couple of doors down the road, and asked them a) where can I go for free internet access? And b) Where do I go to pick up a tourist bus? They answered a) Well we provide it (some hint on checking in would have been appreciated!) and b) Down the road, turn right for Union Square, and they are just outside Maceys from about 09:30. So although there was still a time to go I set off, the morning was nice and I debated leaving my coat in the hotel, however it was just on the edge of chilly so I took it.

Walked down the street, turned right at the appropriate juncture and was very soon in Union Square, ambled around looking at it, a nice concrete open area, reminded me of Neuilly Sur Seine, however surrounded by expensive shops, the weather turned a little inclement then, and so I retired to a cafe on the square and had a very palatable cup of cafe latte, after this I went to the bus stopping place, and signed up with the first bus company that came through, the bus had a covering at the front of the top deck, and we went through the city, China Town, North End, Pier 39, Fishermans Wharf, Golden Gate Park and such. So I rode all the way round the first time just to get a handle on where things were, popped out for a cigarette in the viewing area the other side of the Golden Gate bridge and got drenched, it really was raining very had. I was blowing steam on the top deck as we were coming back!

Got off at Fishermans Wharf, have to admit I was expecting more from it, quite a few restaurants and a number of relatively unimpressive shops, tried an "In and Out" burger as everyone speaks so highly of them, it really was quite pleasant, the chips were not at all bad either. Being the glutton that I am I then went on to Alioto restaurant because I wanted to try some of the crab that San Francisco is so famous for and the restaurant had been spoken of very highly by people on my bus trip. Sadly they didn't do crab and their "Bay shrimp creole" was not really that impressive, bay shrimp were the smallest prawns I have seen, and to be honest were up there with the cheapest frozen prawns I have purchased, the bread was very good though.

Walked up to the cable car station and caught it up to Union Square, very enjoyable, the hills really are rather steep! I sat inside the car which was quite good as it started to rain again.

Walked over to the bus stop again and got on another bus, this one did not have a covered top at all so I took my place downstairs, we went round again, however having another guide (Anne on this trip, Shona on the first one) meant that although the general gist of the guide was the same there was different frosting which was very interesting, when we arrived at Fishermans wharf the weather had improved and so we went upstairs where Anne dried the seats that we passengers were going to use and we sat down and on with the trip, just before we reached the golden gate bridge it started to get a little wet, and whilst we were going across it certainly felt like there was hail driving into my face and by the time we reached the viewing point I was totally drenched. Then sat inside the bus and was almost dry by the time (over an hour later) that we reached Chinatown where I left the bus and had a walk through.

Just after the gate (present from Taiwan, 1970, Fu Dogs), there was a Starbucks which fulfilled a pressing need of mine, although there was some schoolgirl who seemed irritated that anyone else was in the queue, which as she came in five minutes after me, and I was also on the verge of exploding, was a little irksome. My hotel is a few blocks along from Chinatown, so I walked back, and arrived back at about 16:30. Started writing this, and at about 17:15 I went down to the Wine and Horses doofers, olives and devilled eggs, lovely :-) The white Whine was also quite pleasant, however there was a very loud bunch of men discussing their imported Italian wine (or possibly wine faked in America, I wasn't sure, and when they said it would always taste the same from year to year I realised that it would be crap anyway, and the flog it for 18 dollars a bottle!) so I left quite quickly.

About half a block from my hotel there was a sushi restaurant http://sushirika.net/ where I ordered three sets of rolls, Spider, Monster and Tiger. In the description of Monster it mentions the number 4, so I assumed that there would be 4 pieces per roll. Wrong! 8 pieces of Tiger, 8 pieces of Monster, 5 pieces of Spider, but they were HUGE! I had to take half of it away in a doggy bag! All of them were gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, I will have to go back to Oisi, although I'm not sure they use all of these sauces, and I feel even guiltier about Kim not tucking in, the crunch from the Crab and Tempura was lovely.

Then back to the hotel, a bath and soon to bed...