Some more San Francisco sights

We took advantage of the bus tour again today and set off to ride to look at The Painted Ladies, which is a row of quaint looking houses painted in different colours They are very much the kind of houses you see in films and on TVs when you think of San Francisco.

After viewing the houses we got back on the bus and took another trip across a very windy Golden Gate Bridge. It’s hard to describe how impressive the bridge is until you see it, or just how cold you can feel, even on a fairly warm day.

We then wandered around Pier 39 and has some lunch before taking our trip to Alcatraz.

Alcatraz – impressive and thought provoking

In order to get to Alcatraz you have to take a ferry. Now anyone who knows me will tell you that I am not a fan of boats, particularly when the sea is so choppy.  However I really wanted to see Alcatraz and the ferry journey is only about 15 minutes.

From a distance Alcatraz appears to be a small building on top of a hill on a small island. When you actually arrive there you realise how huge it is.

The pre recorded walking tour is done in a way that tells the history of the prison in an interesting way. It certainly makes you think about the people that were placed in there. It’s quite an eerie place and it helps you to imagine what it would have been like when it was a prison which housed what were seen as the most dangerous criminals of America.

One other important thing that I learned was the occupation of Alcatraz by the Native  Americans after it was closed down as a prison. Although the attempts to make it into a heritage centre and university didn’t quite happen, I understand from the visit that it certainly made America reconsider their actions against the Native Americans, which could have only been a good thing.

I really enjoyed the visit and it is certainly worthwhile booking if you ever get chance to visit San Francisco.

Cable car journey

Our last event of the day was to take a Cable car back up to the hotel. There were two reasons for this. One was that we were all exhausted and the second was that we just couldn’t leave San Francisco without travelling on the Cable car at least once.

It was only a short journey and of course we had to do it standing and holding on, not sitting down. What a great end to a busy couple of days!