Day 7 - Sunday 11 June

This has been the third sunny day in a row in a city that is often shrouded in fog. On Friday as we walked through Golden Gate Park a local dog walker observed we were lucky to get a sunny day on our holiday in San Francisco, so we have been very lucky.

Last night we walked UP to North Beach which is not a beach at all but an area of San Francisco next to Chinatown, that is the real Chinatown not the showy part seen by most tourists. We walked up the steepest part of Powell Street then smelled acrid smoke from a fire. The fire brigade soon had several units rushing to attend, including a semi-trailer sized unit with a long ladder on top that simply forced other vehicles off the road, including a  bus. The fire was all under control after about 20 minutes.

North Beach is an area of many Italian restaurants and the most famous is Tony's Pizza Restaurant. There was a line out the front but out of curiosity we asked how long it would be before a table was available - two and a half hours! We settled on the pizza restaurant over the road which was fine.

This morning we took the BART train to Berkeley travelling via the tunnel under the bay and not over the bridge. We walked along Telegraph Avenue which has lots of bookshops, record stores,  and ecclectic clothing stores. Our return walk was via the University of California (Cal) which was founded inthe 1800s.

We have used all forms of Muni transport including the historic cable cars that go up and down some of the steepest hills. Each ride on the cable cars costs $7 unless you have a Muni pass. A seven day pass costs $42 and we have had our money's worth. 











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drive Napier to Whanganui

Image
Our first stop was at the Hastings Farmers' Market, which is so popular it is held every Sunday - sun, rain or hail. The queues for coffee were too long for us to wait, but we bought two lovely croissants from a French baker's stall. We picked up coffees in town at the cinema cafe. Something we don't see at home is milk being sold in reusable bottles. It is decanted from a bulk container so is labour intensive. We stopped for lunch at Palmerston North. There are several wall murals in the city but none were very good. The art deco style "Ladies Rest" was built in 1937. Inside there are arm chairs in a lounge area, original tiles and some original plumbing. When first built it was just rendered, but the current colours work really well.
Read more

Fingal Bay

Image
I scootered 4kms along the bike path to Fingal Bay. This bay is outside Port Stephens but I was surprised to see a Surf Life Saving Club because the sea was absolutely flat. The sand spit can wash away during high tides stranding people on Mount Stephens.
Read more

Wanganui

Image
The town's name is spelt without an h, but the river is Whanganui. There have even been referenda about the spelling, with or without the h. Finally the powers that govern such things decreed either is acceptable for the name of the town. This must be a challenge for computer mapping programs and manufacturers of GPS guidance technology. These wonderful old buildings are in Victoria Avenue, down near the river. They date from the mid 1800s and have been well preserved. Earthquakes caused significant damage in 1843 and 1897, but not to the same extent as the destruction of much of Napier. In the past month there have been dozens of earthquakes rated weak to moderate in New Zealand and nearby waters, including a magnitude 4.1 quake 30 kms south of Wanganui (in the Cook Strait between the north and south islands). Fingers crossed there won't be another disastrous event.
Read more