I got to the GG bridge viewing point and parked up. The bridge was covered in fog and there was a wicked wind blowing. For the first time in ages I needed my thick top and jacket. This was not the sunny California that I had come to expect and love.Luckily you can only look at the bridge for so long and it was soon time to do something else in the city. This was no hardship, there is so much to do and so many things to see. SF actually has a history.
I started with Fisherman's Wharf, which despite the tourist shops is a cool place. At the far end of the wharf there is a maritime museum with a wide range of old ships, including a tug from Newcastle and a clipper from England. They also have a World War II submarine and warship that you can tour. The tours from Alcatraz go from here and there was also a cruise ship docked up as well. To a certain extent the wharf is still a working wharf but the fishermen are long gone before the tourists arrive, including me. I also got to see the "Bush man" of SF. He's this busker, he cuts off bush branches,sits down on the pavement and hides behind them. As people walk past he moves the branches or jumps out at people. Now to the group of people watching this from across the road, including me, this is funny. But if you're the person he's doing this to, well I am not sure that I wouldn't want to hit him and that he wouldn't deserve it!
After buying the obligatory postcards I left the wharf and moved into the Nob Hill part of town, the seriously hilly part of SF that was made so famous in the car chase in the Steve McQueen movie. I went to the top of Lombard St.,supposedly the crookedest street in the whole city. There was already a queue of cars waiting to go down it and a queue of tourists waiting to take their photo. Since I had the car,it didn't occur to me not to drive down it, so off I went. In all honesty,the actual mechanics of driving down the road is not that much of a challenge,select a low gear and keep your foot on the brakes. The biggest challenge lies in not hitting the car in front or a pedestriran as you're too busy looking out the window. I managed it and the drive did put a serious smile on my face,even if it only took all of two minutes.Some things you just have to do.
Since it was not even two yet I went to another hill, Telegraph hill and Coit Tower. I wanted to climb the tower to stretch out my legs but that wasn't an option and so had to settle for the lift. The views from the top were great. I used my Gorilla Pod to take a photo of me and almost lost my camera as another tourist knocked the camera and pod off the rail I had attached it to. Fortunately she was able to stop it falling down the stairs and I got the shot.From the tower it was on to China Town. There is so much to see in SF and I had decided that I would do as much as possible while I still had the car. You can walk to most of the major sights in the city, but there are some wicked hills on the most direct routes. And the hills are truly wicked. You see the photos and they don't prepare you for the physical reality that is San Francisco. It makes you wonder how many pairs of brake pads the average driver in SF goes through each year.
After China Town I left the car where I had parked it and walked in search of Union Square. Unfortunately the map I had wasn't too clear and I walked up to United Nations Plaza,walking through the Tenderloin district on the way. The Tenderloin district is where the local homeless people congregate, but it's only a couple of blocks away from Union Square and Nob Hill where some of the best hotels in the city are.It would be so easy to wander in here by mistake after dark and quite possibly deadly too. I was a bit uneasy, but it was broad daylight and I wasn't prepared to stop for anybody. I eventually found a map stuck on the side of a public toilet and made my way to Union Square. There isn't much here, but it is the home to the Westin ST. Francis hotel where Gerald Ford was almost assassinated.I don't why but I love this kind of trivia.
When I went back to the car I was a bit worried as it was parked in a two hour parking spot and I had been gone for three. It was fine, I didn't have a ticket. Now where was I to stay for the night? I had my choice of fine locations, there was the park, the beach or bridge views. I settled for a small residential street near the wharf. Although I hadn't had any problems before I was still a bit worried about sleeping in the car and wanted to be in a fairly built up area in case something did happen. Of course this also meant that there were more people around, some of whom could cause me a problem but... I parked next to this van,not at first seeing the guy inside reorganising his stuff. He turned out to be another person who would be sleeping in his car that night. Daniel is from Oregon and down in SF for a few days before going to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. He was very well prepared and made me a nice cup of tea before I went to bed.
I couldn't believe how my day had turned out. And this was only my first day in the city, what would my second bring?
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