San Francisco

the angle of the photo is the angle of the street

You could lose yourself here for several days. The streets look like every American TV show I have ever watched.

 

Let me start by saying that the better parts of San Francisco are away from the wharves simply because the waterfront and surrounds is losing it’s quirky attractiveness and becoming a cheap tourist mecca where the food is less than good and everything is way overpriced. That said, you must see Fisherman’s Wharf once and try the crab, not clam, chowder and then leave quickly. Crab over clam because the clams are all imported and the crab is local and fresh!

There are so many things to do and places to see that a plan of attack will serve you well. The high-end stores in Union Square are a distraction and the 50% off Macy’s sale was too tempting. After some retail therapy catch the big red bus in Union Square and a quick circumnavigation of San Francisco puts you back on track.

An important piece of tourist advice is to pre-book your Alacatraz visit on the internet as it is regularly booked out several days ahead.

Crab Chowder, not clam!

San Francisco’s 850,000 locals live across steep 43 hills in the second most densely populated city in the USA (New York is first).  The larger San Francisco metropolis houses 7.4 million people. You are either walking or riding up or down a steep incline for most of your time here and you certainly get a good workout.

In 1776 colonists from Spain, who were just sailing past, liked the place so they made friends with the Ohlone Tribes, who appear to have inhabited the area since 3000BC, built a fort in honour of St. Francis of Assisi and moved in. In the mid 1800’s the town of 1000 people grew as the Great Gold Rush attracted over 50,000 mainly Chinese immigrants seeking their fortune. San Francisco holds claim to the oldest Chinatown in North America.

Up top is great but cold, Macy's behind

IN 1873 the famous cable cars were introduced allowing easy access to the hilltops of San Francisco. These cable cars are one of the worlds most well known moving historic attractions. In 1906, three quarters of the city was destroyed in an earthquake and subsequent fires, similar in devastation, but on a larger scale, to what we have seen in Christchurch New Zealand recently. The rebuild took 10 years.

Today, San Francisco ranks 35th out of the 100 most visited cities worldwide, and is renowned for its fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz Island, and Chinatown. Sydney is 42^nd as at 2011.

San Francisco is spread over 120 square kilometres so the best way to explore, as mentioned, is the get on-get off red buses and the trams. For $US35 we got to see all the tourist must-do’s and drove across the fog bound Golden Gate Bridge, upstairs in an open top bus. We froze, got wet, and saw nothing due to a dense fog but it was great fun. When we got to the other side, the bus turned around to re-cross the bridge. 

Golden Gate Bridge and the famous San Francisco fog

As everyone realised we were going straight back over the bridge, all the upstairs Japanese tourists got up and rushed downstairs and all the downstairs English and Australian tourists rushed upstairs; who were the crazy ones?

Can you imagine the travel to work injury claims in Australia??

Riding a Tram up a steep street is an experience not for the feint-hearted. When you jump on, if there are no seats, you grab a “hang on” pole and stand on the running boards. The tram tracks are not so smooth and “holding on” is a focal point let alone trying to take photos with one hand whilst holding the tourist map in the other.  This was an attained skill over time but the trams are efficient ways to move quickly up and down the 43 hills.



Did you know?

·      The “fortune cookie” was invented by a Chinese cook in the San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden, in the 1800’s.

·      Denim jeans were invented during the San Francisco gold rush for miners wanting strong comfortable pants. 

·      The era and phrase “Flower Power” came from San Francisco which was originally Spanish named as “Yearba Buena” meaning “good grass”.  The Hippie generation was very strong in San Francisco and they took on the descriptive phrase.

·      Over the 30 years that Alcatraz was operational as a jail, 36 prisoners made 14 attempts to escape the island, unsuccessfully.

In summary, San Francisco looks a little tired and has a large and visible homeless population who are unpleasantly verbose about their views of passing tour coaches. Fishermans Wharf has also fallen away in the last few years and is a garish collection of tourist shops that are outlets for low quality chinese made tourist trinkets. 

Still a great time was had. Some say Sydney's Darling Harbour needs a makeover............