Day 14: A Bridge (not) too far

A visit to San Francisco would not be complete without crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and travelling on a cable car, well today we experienced both these tourist "must do's".  Our friends Andrew and Julie came here last year and gave us some tips about crossing the bridge, we followed their advice!

After getting the bus to the bridge's southern  information centre we set off on the walk way, the views were obviously great, and the pavement was busy. It had occurred to me to hire bikes and cycle over, good job we didn't, because there were loads of other people doing that, and they were a bloody menace! - I even saw one bloke trying to take a photo on his phone while cycling along the crowded path, plonker.

                                                   

                                                              Before we set off..

                                                   

                                                           At the south tower.

                                       

                                                Half way - watch out for the cyclist.

                                                       

                                                                The North side.

Once we crossed the bay we took a small footpath down to the water, almost underneath the bridge, and set off to walk to the small resort of Sausalito. It was remarkable how quiet and remote this walk was compared to the manic busy nature of the bridge, a pleasant break from the noise and traffic.

                                           

                                                      In the shadows of the north tower.

We set off along the shore line towards Sausalito when we came across a tourist shuttle bus, we were a little footsore, so we hopped on..

After a beer and ice cream, we caught the Bay ferry back to San Francisco, a great round trip in glorious weather.

Once back on terra firma, we wandered around the down town area, and came across the terminus for one of the cable car routes. These are like small trams, the "cables" are actually under the road, a continuous wire that is moving and the tram attaches itself and is pulled along. A mad system, but it works, because the routes get very, very steep at times!

                                                       

                                                     Our cable car just after we got off.

We got off the car at "Nob Hill", and I remarked to Jan that I could think of a few people who might live here, "So can I", she answered, with a funny look in her eye...

I read somewhere that San Francisco's China town is supposed to be the biggest Chinese community outside of China, we stopped by here and had our evening meal. It's my theory that chopsticks are designed to make a 30 minute meal last an hour - but I wasn't going to yield to the knife and fork!

Jan has an old school friend who is an air stewardess, and through Face book this friend has contacted her and it seems she is on a stop-over here in SF! Several texts later and we have arranged a lunchtime meeting tomorrow, what are the chances?

                                                  

                                                       The streets are blooming steep!