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Um. So where was I?

Oh yeah, we’d just arrived in San Fran…

AlcatrazNow, everyone told us we’d love the city, but we weren’t quite sure. Maybe it was something to do with first impressions, or maybe we were expecting too much, but we never quite got on with San Fran like we thought we might. That’s not to say that the city doesn’t have its charms, and I really enjoyed some of the tourist stuff: Alcatraz is well worth visiting, of course. There’s an excellent atmospheric audio tour that guides you around the old prison buildings, and if you close your eyes you can almost begin to imagine what it might have been like inside there. Unfortunately, to get yourself there you have to catch a ferry from the world of tourist tat that is Fisherman’s Wharf: a world of tacky souvenirs, shabby amusements, and fast-food restaurants (or “San Francisco’s most popular destination” if you like…)

We got out of there as soon as we could.

San Fran did provide one of the highlights of our whole trip, however, when we did this:

Golden Gate Bridge

“Are you ready to bike the bridge and have some fun?” asked a ridiculously cheery bloke as we approached the bike rental office.
“Um, yeah, I guess so,” I replied, as he handed me a disclaimer form to fill in, on which we waived the right to sue them in the event of our collective untimely demise under the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV. Now, it’s at least six years since I’ve been let loose on two wheels, but he assured me that it comes back to you. It’s “like riding a bike,” he tells me (a joke I’m sure he’s never made before), as he goes off to the back of the shop to locate the biggest framed bike they have, muttering “we got all the tall people today!”

As we wobbled off to locate some flat ground on a quiet street to get used to our new mode of transport, the English couple who had been in front of us in the queue shot past on a tandem, which we thought was rather optimistic. Sufficiently proficient ourselves, we rounded the corner to face the first challenge of the journey up to the bridge: a steep gradient of about 45 degrees. We decided it might be an idea to find a bit of flat ground to get used to our gears, and by the time we’d got back there was the other couple again. On separate bikes.

The bridge is simply stunning. Up at the top, as is often the case, the fog had descended to street level, and you could feel the dampness in the air in spite of the lovely hot late summer day that we’d left down in the town.

Over the other side of the bridge the city gives way to the national parks of Marin County, and when we decided to hire the bikes, we’d entertained thoughts of riding off to the redwood forests and greenery beyond. After 2 1/2 hours on the bikes, however, we decided that we might just stop for lunch in the pretty town of Sausalito, which is just a couple of miles over the other side.

Sausalito

In a very clever move, the bike rental company gives everyone tickets for the ferry back to San Fran from Sausalito (“if you don’t use them, you don’t pay for them…”) Of course it was just too tempting, so we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Horizons, which offers decidedly average food, but wonderful views, and caught the ferry back.

SausalitoWe sat one table away from the bay area’s grumpiest woman, who had complained about so many aspects of her dining experience that the waitress had begun to show her frustration (and it’s not enough that you see that kind of attitude in service-culture-focussed America). The grumpy customer was not only complaining about her food, but she had also taken exception to the music. She asked if the inoffensive pop could be changed to some “light jazz”, to which the waitress responded (eventually, after initially fobbing her off by telling her she’d have to ask the manager) through gritted, slightly sarcastic teeth: “well, this is a seventies-themed restaurant; it’s been here for quite a while, actually…”

It worked, though. Before the grumpy woman left, the manager popped up and tore up her bill. Hmm, we thought: maybe we should try that one in future…