Round The World and other travel

A day of contrasts in San Francisco

The trip entered a new phase today, with Bruce's return to work. He got up at some ungodly hour to start his day in line with Boston time. I had a basic Holiday Inn Express breakfast at a more reasonable local time, bought a Muni '1-day passport' on my smartphone and prepared to spend a few hours on my own, getting reacquainted with San Francisco. As a 'transit geek' (to use the local terminology), I wanted to give a special focus to the city's vintage public transport, consisting of the three surviving cable car lines and now two tram lines operated by classic streetcars from around the USA and elsewhere. My explorations took me to the Cable Car Museum, then Russian Hill, down Hyde Street to Ghirardelli Square, along Fisherman's Wharf, and finally round to the cable car terminus at California & Market.

I met Bruce at the Ferry Building and we had a bento-box lunch there. We then set off on a lengthy afternoon walk to the Financial District, North Beach, Telegraph Hill, the Levi Strauss Plaza, Chinatown and back to Union Square. Some rest time was needed back in the hotel room after all that.

Later we set out for the Castro on the F-Line (vintage streetcars). Unfortunately, this line was experiencing disruption and it took an hour to reach our destination. We enjoyed drinks at the Twin Peaks Tavern and dinner at The Sausage Factory. In view of the earlier disruption, it seemed prudent to return to base on a Muni train.