Over the Bridge
11th December, San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Victorian San Fran and Haight Ashbury
We started the day yesterday glued to the TV weather and local news (Kron 4) stations, on account of two waves of storms that were affecting much of the west coast of America. We had watched the local news reporter broadcasting live from the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, commenting on the waves crashing over onto the roads hugging the coastline and how one crazy surfer was contemplating going out into the bay; meanwhile the US Coast Guards were using the foul weather to practice rescues in adverse conditions - the boats were crashing up and down in 20 foot swells.
Today, it was a completely different story. We wanted to see the bridge from a closer distance than we had been able to thus far, and today was our last chance to do it. Blue skies at last!
Before getting to the bridge, we had to work out our route. So far, we had bought one-day tram passes - or Muni Passes - at $9 and not really used them to their full advantage. Although the ticket says that it is for travel on San Francisco Municipal Railway, this includes more than rail. You can use these passes on any kind of cable car, tram or zero-emissions, electric-powered bus that you can find. We hopped on one of the latter contraptions which took us up to the Palace of Fine Arts. This is a strange building - a Greco-Roman replica of ... something ... and I wasn't really sure of its purpose, other than to look pretty. With its surrounding lake (with ducks and swans), a blue sky and crisp morning air, it managed to pull that off quite easily:
The Palace of Fine Arts, near the Presidio Park, San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge
After doing a circuit of this building we then walked toward the Golden Gate Bridge. A note of warning to visitors to San Francisco - don't believe your map. The map we were using at the time was part to scale, part compressed - anything west of the street named Divisadero was compressed by twice the scale as the rest of it, hence what you think would take a certain time could well take a lot longer. No matter, though. It was a nice day and we got a nice walk along the coast, and every now and then we'd stop and take a photo of the bridge ("Oh, this looks better ... let's get another one"). By the time we had reached the bridge proper, we must have taken at least 45 photos, including those photos that we deleted. Thank heavens (or Canon) for digital cameras.
The Golden Gate Bridge, no less.
Some facts about the Golden Gate Bridge
We wanted to go across the bridge entirely but couldn't catch a bus from the approach - there are buses that go over, but you have to catch them further back (and we didn't feel like backtracking to move forward - our walk had taken too long already!). Another option would have been to ride over on a hired bicycle. We had seen quite a lot of people doing this but, again, once we were at the start of the bridge we were well past the point of hiring (probably they were hired from near the Palace of Fine Arts? We will never know ....). So, we decided to walk as far as we felt like it, which turned out to be the first tower. In total, the bridge is 1.7 miles long, but we'd just walked double that (easily) to get there, so we can't be accused of wussing out. Hey, that's my excuses and I'm sticking to it!
That's us. On the Golden Gate Bridge. No, it's not a picture taken in Bognor
Regis superimposed on a picture of the bridge using Photoshop. Really.
On the way to the bridge, actually way back before I realised just how lying and decetful my little map was, we had chated with a man from Massachussets about the history of the area (he had been in the military based on the area immediately to the east of the bridge on the southern approach) and he had told us that arround 1,000 people had committed suicide off the bridge. I wondered whether we had narrowly missed seeing another - as we got near to the first tower, I noticed that traffic had stopped behind Manda's back as she posed for a photo. It was the bridge patrol vehicles stopping a lane. Moments later one of the security people had hopped out of the car and escorted a very tearful looking girl back to the back seat before taking her away. A jumper? Or just someone whose vertigo got the better of her? Who knows. All I know is that if you want to throw yourself off anything, you can't get much more monumental than this bridge, and on a crisp day like this, what a view ...
Steiner Street
Our next stop was Steiner Street. Not immediately famous, no? Well, this is true. But we had a specific place to look at, that being number 2640, or 'the Mrs Doubtfire house'. Manda is a fan of the film and we thought it would be good to take a look (although it was difficult to remember exactly how it had appeared in the film). Manda was surprised that we were the only people there, but then it was just one location used in a comedy from a few years ago, and when you think of it, there have been so many great films set in San Francisco that most streets could boast some film connection somewhere along the line.
Further up Steiner Street - about 10 blocks - is another location that was recommended to us (by our talkative friend from Massachussets). A group of 4 Victorian houses that are very photogenic, as the picture below testifies to:
Haight Ashbury
From here we made our way to the Haight Ashbury district of the city. By bus. Oh yes, we were getting our money's worth today! The district gets its name from the intersection of Haight and Ashbury, and it was here that the 60s saw a big influx of bohemian types. Oh and a bunch of LSD-taking loons, some of whom haven't left. The 60s, that is - they haven't left the 60s, and someone really ought to tell them.
The district may still have its bohemian, creative types, and there may be a buzz about it somewhere, but for my money it was a run-down area that didn't really do much for me and even the hippy shops seemed old hat (smokers' paraphernalia, paintings of Bob Marley). Wow, man. Like cosmic. I suspect that some people can convince themselves that they are digging that Haight Ashbury vibe, but both Manda and I just wanted to make our way back in to town and 'civilisation' once more.
We finished the day with a visit to a computer shop where we picked up some practical stuff for our iPods (an essential travel item!), then had a meal in a traditional 50s-style American Diner (Loris' Diner - it's a chain, as far as I could tell, although when we went in, I thought we were getting the unique treatment, and thought that Loris herself was taking our orders, heh).