TUESDAY 15-04-08 

Last night was quite cold and I had to get up during the night and turn the heating on.

Today we made our way in to San Francisco on the bus. We jumped off at the Golden Gate Plaza and then walked two miles back over the bridge towards Marin County. Once on the opposite side we needed to get back towards the city and decided to get a Two-Day pass with one of the open-top bus tour companies, they picked up at the Plaza and it was a solution, not just to get ourselves back over the bridge without having to walk it again, but as a way of sightseeing the city. As luck would have it one of the companies kindly offered to give us a lift back in to town where we could buy a couple of tour tickets at their office and so we joined their tour group sitting upstairs on the open top bus. The trip and commentary were very interesting indeed and we got it all for free, although we did give a tip when we arrived at our destination. 

First we checked out Fisherman’s Wharf, which is a pleasant touristy area and as time was getting on we popped in to a local restaurant and had lunch and a nice cold beer. Afterwards we made our way to Pier 33 to buy tickets for a visit to Alcatraz prison for tomorrow at 1100hrs. 

San Francisco is delightful, with a real laid-back feel to it. Nobody seems in a hurry, nobody is driving on their horn or squealing their brakes, it was all very nice and civilised. We visited well known Lombard Street, a very narrow twisting road down a steep hill. When it’s featured on television you get the impression that there’s a whole long road like that, but no, it’s a short length, just enough to get the tourists up there with their cameras. 

At the end of an enjoyable day we needed to find the bus stop for our return journey to the RV Park in Marin County back across the Bay Bridge. The directions given by the campground were rather confusing and we ended up having to climb right back up the hill we had only recently come down. It just didn’t seem a logical place to have the bus stop for the return journey but after much unwanted uphill exercise we found the bus stop thanks entirely to a local couple who were lovely, helpful people. The husband even phoned the bus company helpline to confirm we were standing at the right bus stop, and at the same time discovering that the last bus had broken down and wouldn’t be running (this was only about 19:00 and there was no warning on the RV Park handout that the buses stopped running so early), this was now going to give us real problems getting back, luckily the couple very kindly offered to run us back to the campground as they only lived around the corner, and felt it would be quicker to get their car out and run us back than spend time trying to work out a solution using alternative bus routes. These lovely helpful people really did help us out as the only other solution would have been to catch a taxi back, and given the distance involved it would have been quite expensive. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: Marin RV Park, 2140 Redwood Hwy, Greenbrae, CA.