Days 39 & 40, 21-22 May. Alcatraz Prison, Biking the Golden Gate

Day 39-
Woke to yet another beautiful clear day, brisk & cool but sunny & not a cloud in the sky- very nice for your american 50th birthday! We went to our usual Starbucks for cereal & yoghurt and nice hot cuppas then decided to wander down the Hyde St pier which is right across from our hotel. The National Parks have restored ships there and at only $10 to go in, it was well worth it. They had a fishing ship, a mighty Tug named Hercules, a transport paddle steamer and a sailing vessel.

 The tug 'Hercules'

 Paddlesteamer 

Was great being able to walk through them in their entirity and feel all the yesteryear they have seen. The sailing vessel had an interesting history as back then the, ship owners liked a captain whose wife would also live on board, so as to bring the level of refinement up! The most famous captain who broke two time records, actually did so because his wife - who had come from a sailing family & she had a talent for navigation and navigated them through from West Australia to America in record times.The owners would build a parlour, decked out in red velevet for the lady of the ship, to entertain and sew in.

Inside the paddlesteamer

Sailing vessel 

Engine inside the tug

Inside the carcass of the fishing vessel 

Knees- the bolts of the times

Water under the pier is a lovely colour 

The tug was pretty impressive too and Graeme was impressed with the size of the engine. Pity we arent local as they are looking for people with boiler & steam experience to help restore it further, which he could and would like to do, but today got to enjoy it anyway.  The fishing ship was massive down inside the hull and nearly all the original wood etc inside has survived, mostly due to the salting process they carried out on the fish. There are massive 'knees' which are like bolts in the hull that have all survived throughout the sailing years too.
The paddle steamer had lots of old trucks and cars inside the hull which brought back memories of Great Grannies cars they had when we were kids in NZ and that lovely old leather & oil smell.

We wandered round town in the sunshine for a bit and looked through more of the shops. Fishermans Wharf is humming in the weekend! With so many languages being spoken in the street- its great.

At 3pm we left to walk down to Pier 33 where we are catching our ferry ride over to Alcatraz Prison, my choice for a great place to spend your birthday haha! Had a few anxious moments (for both of us) when I went off to the toilets and we somehow missed each other on the way back to the waiting point. I was standing there but Graeme had gone to sit down and couldnt see me. After about 15 mins and nearly boarding time, I starting to feel worried cos his 'germaness'! Never lets him be late!! Finally found each other after we both had scenarios running through our heads (mine is he has wandered off & been whacked on the head by someone cos he never disappears....his is Im stuck in the toilet!?!!!). Oh well......

Happiness restored we hopped on the ferry and across the San Francisco bay to Alcatraz. I had bought a behind the sccenes tour which includes the night tour as well. I had a look and they are currently booked until June 26th! So very popular and they only take a group of 33 through on these. It was really worthwhile as we got to go down under the prison common areas and see tunnels and names carved into the roof and walls, of the soldiers who were stationed there before it became a prison. There was even one inscription from an 'Albert Anderson from Melbourne Australia'.

The old laundry 

Down in the foundation tunels 

Albert Anderson from Melbourne- a solider in the garrison 

Ok give us the key! 

Then we went upstairs and looked at the cells and also D Block which housed the bad boy and isolation. The tour guide invited us all to be locked in one of the isolations cells for a bit. It wasnt too bad but the fact that they took the prisoners bed out each day and the left them to sit, stand and eat in the pure dark - apart from a crack of light around the door, must have been horrible. There was a fixed term of 19 days if you ended up in there.

We also saw the Birdmans cell - he was apparently noisy and a pain in the butt,  so he had 7 years in the very top, end cell on the 3rd floor.

The gardens have been kept in their original state 

The showers - bugger that!

Inmates 

The Birdmans cell for 7 years at top

Then we did the night audio tour which was great, it told you stories from the inmates and guards themselves and walked you through the areas they used. I think there were usually only about 250 inmates but they said the dining room was the most dangerous place cos of the cutlery and there were gas canisters hung up on the roof in there, in case of any trouble.

There was a photo of the last man to leave Alcatraz and the commentary said everyone else had somewhere to go or family to see, but he was scared as he had nothing and noone. Must look up what happened to him. All the men who were sentenced to Alcatraz were hardened criminals with real crimes behind them, not stealing a loaf of bread or a blanket to keep warm.

We finished the tour and caught the ferry back over the bay. This place is surreal the way the mist blows so fast you can see it moving, just like on the top of the rock of Gibraltor. The air was soo cold with the mist blowing, I loved it but even I had a lot of clothes on and was just warm enough!

Looking back at San Fran. Inmates said at new years, they could always hear the frivolity & music across the water 

We wandered through town on the walk back to the hotel after we had docked and stopped at Joes where we had lobster and crab the other night. Had a delcious bar meal of crab stuffed mushrooms, crumbed mozzarella sticks and Graeme had a burger. Celebrated my birthday with a pina colada or two (remind me not to have creamy drinks late at night next time = heartburn galore!)

Day 40 -

This morning we are renting pushbikes and cycling the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked round the corner to the Bike rental place and got our bikes. The cycling path begins on the beach and there were more and more people as we went along! Had a few pretty puffy hills at the start but once you get up near the bridge it levelled out,  although there was a really gusty headwind the whole way!@#!!

We stopped and took photos along with everyone else - not surprised when we found out the bridge is the 2nd most visited attraction in America :)

The bike took us about 1 1/2 hours then over the hill into Sausalito which was a really lovely little town. Would be worth staying there for a couple of days as its a quaint costal area.  Parked the bikes and went to have a very cold tall glass of beer- Noice!  Then back on the bikes and down the road to the jetty as there is a ferry that goes between Sausalito and Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran. The lines of bikes were massive! I tied my scarf around out two handlebars or we wouldn't have known which were ours as most people had hired their bikes from the same place as us.

Off the ferry back in town and we decided we had to go see Lombard St the famous one way crooked st. OMG pushing a bike up hills as steep as ladders made for very good exercise! The howling wind really wears you our too when you've been in it all day, but we got there fine.

Parked the bikes and walked up part of the street to take the touristy photos and talked to a nice local man, then we biked back to the Wharf. Graemes bike gears had been slipping quite bad and on the up-hills they kept doing it so he couldn't really ride. We got back to the hire place and sorted the bikes- the guy gave Graeme half price on his bike, which was good.

Wandered back to the hotel and had a quick lay down. I'm losing my voice after having my cold and being in the wind, sound funny haha.  Then we went downstairs to the restaurant and had the Argonauts award winning clam chowder, yummy.

At 7.30pm we went back up the road to the Segway place we booked into for a night tour on them. They gave us a run through. I thought I probably wouldn't be so good on them but the instructor said I was actually better than Graeme!!! The secret is to keep your hands very light on the handles, so women are probably better at that. They are So much fun and we hit the road as it is legal in san Francisco to ride segways on the road. It was freezing though so we were glad we had our puffer jackets.

The instructor took us all around the city and you can get a decent speed up on them. We went through Chinatown which used to have a 'murder alley' and it certainly was dodgy - we were told you don't wander round here unless you know it.

One thing that really stands out here is the amount of rubbish everywhere on the streets. We were told that all the homeless and Las Vegas and somewhere else were rounded up year ago and dropped over the border in San Francisco, hence why there are so many and the rubbish everywhere. There is also a terrible stink in the streets in some places like backed up sewer.

Spent 2 1/2 hrs 'segwaying' around! It was so cold and misty but we really enjoyed it. Back tot he hotel and fell into bed. We have 2 flights tomorrow to get home- have had such a good time though!