SF - again

Well, I didn't get around to finishing off the blog from yesterday so I'll do that now and go on to today a little later.

After reaching SF we aimed for the hotel and after a first unsuccessful attempt to return the car at O'Farrell I managed to take us around the block and get into the parking ramp. We had carefully planned the luggage carrying and soon ended up in the hotel, which was only a couple of blocks away. We upgraded our room to a slightly better specification and breathed a sigh of relief.

A quick estimate shows that I had driven over 3000 miles!

Anyway, we went out and acquired our passes for the local transport system, Muni and took the F-line down to Embarcadero to a diner we had eaten at before. En-route we heard several english accents which we studiously ignored and avoided.

After that we drifted back to the hotel.

Now for today.

We thought we'd make it over to Sausilito crossing the Golden Gate Bridge via the Presidio. We set out and the weather was overcast; I write overcast but it was quite odd. The overcast cloud was more like low-flying cloud. As we crossed the city the cloud came and went. It wasn't rain-type cloud - more like a fog. We went to a shop on Taylor and decided to hire a couple of bikes; we thought about a tandem but decided that single bikes might be better. We got geared up and set off.

This was my partner's first time driving/riding on US roads. I must admit I wondered how she would cope and she did rather well. We started off on the flat and went off along the water front and onto the Promenade. A quick spin along that and we had a steep hill to cope with. We dealt with that and rode along the Presidio and Crissy Fields. There were other cyclists like us and a few that were doing it as exercise; lycra shorts and the like.

We went to Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and could see the work being done to retrofit the bridge to cope with seismic activity. Up we went next to the bridge and was it cold and blowing! The mist was moving at high speed across the bridge and it was all crowded.

We rode across the bridge dealing with pedestrians, other cyclists and the wind. It was chilly and strong. However we soon made it across to the other side - We had ridden the bridge! Down we went to Sausilito and as we descended it became a lot calmer and warmer. On entering Sausilito we looked for somewhere to buy something to eat. We found a deli and bought two rather large sandwiches and coffee. We found somewhere to eat them. We fell into talking with a local tour guide. We chatted about nothing in particular but it turned out that his brother had become a British citizen!

We thought we would go back by ferry and set off for it. We arrived at the terminal in plenty of time. We waited and waited and then we could see the ferry coming in. We would have to wait another 20 minutes at least. Despite the haul up the hill back to the bridge we chose to bike it. The ride wasn't too bad; we had to walk up the hill on a few occasions. Soon we had reached the top and able to get back over the bridge. We were over the side in short order and speeding along the same route as we went out on. It didn't take long to get back to the hire shop. Leaving the bikes behind we set off on foot, grabbed a coffee at Barnes and Noble and caught a bus back to Union Square. We chatted with a chap on the bus and soon we were back in our hotel room.

We went to Loris's for our evening meal; on getting back to our room we cleaned up; got ready for bed and settled down for the night.

Tomorrow, or is it today, will be another great day in SF.