Braithwaite World Tour

The plan for today was to do some serious shopping, mainly for an additional suitcase to hold our purchases. Roger is very keen on American cookware and we usually come home with a couple of saucepans or similar. We are also keen on a few bits and bobs from Walmart.

Santa Rosa has a good selection of shops, including T J Maxx (same family as T K Maxx) and before we knew where we were it was later afternoon. Our original plan was to spend tonight at San Jose which is south of San Francisco but we very quickly decided that it would involve too much driving and hve settled for staying in the wine producing region, in a small town called Napa.

We have searched the 'Net and have found a Walmart for tomorrow. I just hope the new suitcase will hold all the purchases.

It doesn't look like we will be able to get to San Jose this trip. We'll just have to come back another time.

By the way the temperature away from San Francisco shoots up, it was about 80 today.

We have been able to get access to the internet at each of the hotels here, even the little motels. Sydney could learn something. Another thing I love about America is the provision, stocking and cleanliness of the public toilets (hate to lower the tone, but it's an important fact). It's nice to know that there is always one around the corner!

Last day in San Francisco and we had a few boxes still to tick.

Roger wanted to ride on the outside of a cable car so we walked to Fisherman's Wharf and made his day. We ended up at Union Square where we collected the hire car and headed back towards our hotel.

We stopped off at a very particular part of Lombard Street which has the title 'The Crookedest Street' because the road zig zags downhill a steep slope. It's one way (of course) and tourists stand at the bottom to take photos of the cars that drive down. Roger negotiated it quite nicely.

We drove towards the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped at the viewing area. It was the first time we had got a good view of it as it had always been shrouded in the famous fog. We took plenty of pics of the bridge and also looking back towards the city itself and over to Alcatraz. From our high vantage point we could see the layer of fog hanging over the city and the sea.

We finally crossed the bridge and headed for Santa Rosa. We did not have any accommodation pre-booked so checked out a few before deciding on the Country Inn, which turns out to be the typical American motel style place. It's cheap, has all the necessary bits an bobs and is just down the road from a huge shoe shop that stays open until 9. The perfect place in my book.

Tomorrow we plan to drive back down towards San Francisco and go around the inside of the bay. The main aim is to find a Walmart to do some final shopping before heading home on Thursday.

Can't believe that it's nearly all over.

We had to be up quite promptly this morning as our trip to Alcatraz left from pier 33 at 10.30 and we had to be there 30 mins earlier. We were queuing at the dock and watched as the boat pulled in...a little too quickly. There was a crutch as the boat hit the pier. The queue waited expectantly and listened intently to the message "Due to technical problems the next sailing will be delayed....we do not have a new sailing time at present."

It took a while to bring on the spare boat but soon we were off over the bay towards Alcatraz. We docked and were pointed in the direction of the long walk up the hill towards the cell blocks of the prison. We collected an audio tour gear and set off on one of the best tours we have ever had. The main narrator was an ex-guard and also included some ex-inmates. The instructions were very precise and the tour covered all areas of the prison buildings, plus the admin areas and Warden's office. It also covered some of the escape attempts in detail, which was very interesting.

The island sits only about 1.5 miles into the Bay but the water between is treacherous with currents and cold water. Some of the cells faced towards the shore and a story is told of the New Year's Eve parties held at the San Francisco Yacht Club, directly opposite to the prison. When the wind was in the right (or wrong?) direction the sounds of laughter and jollity could be heard by the prisoners.

Back on shore we walked to Pier 39 and enjoyed a lunch of hollowed out sour dough rolls filled with soup and chilli.

One of the 'must do's in San Francisco is riding on the cable cars. These iconic vehicles run on chains under the road and although they have a definite Somerset Maughan 'A streetcar named Desire' look about them the one we rode on was built in 1997. The best part of a ride on a cable car is that, if there are no seats left, you have to stand on a ledge running along the side and hang on to a pole! Roger is keen to try; I am very happy not to. Although the cable cars travel on the standard roads their top speed is 9.5 mph.

The city is hilly and many of the roads are steep. Because much of the city is built on the grid system you can actually see the road rising, or falling, into the distance.

We have a car for a couple of days from tomorrow and will be heading over the Golden Gate Bridge and on to Santa Rosa.

After a night in a fairly average hotel near the airport we moved on this morning to the centre of San Francisco. Of course, we decided not to do it the easy way so we used the hotel shuttle to get back to the airport and then the BART to get to the city.

Our new hotel is within walking distance of Fisherman's Wharf. As we were a bit early to actually check in we dropped off our luggage and set off. At the end of the road is the bay and to the left is a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the tops of the towers hidden in fog. Fog is one of the features of San Francisco due to it's location and geography.

After a few photos we headed to the right and walked along the water side to Fisherman's Wharf. As we walked the streets grew progressively busier. We finally ended up at the Wharf, which was heaving with people. At Pier 39, we wondered around an out door mall, lots of places to eat and lots of fish being eaten. One of the specialities appears to be a large bread roll, hollowed out, containing soup or chowder.

Back at the hotel, we checked in. Bear in mind that this hotel is costing us £35 per night so we were not expecting total luxury, but the room is fine and clean and we have breakfast included. We found a Safeway store (open 24 hours - yay!) and Roger has bought supplies for dinner. It's an in-room picnic this evening and a visit to Alcatraz in the morning.

Here we are, the final leg of our round the world trek. We left Hawaii this afternoon at about 1 and arrived here at 8.40pm, though with a 3 hour time difference. It is now 10.40pm on Saturday, compared with 6.40am on Sunday in the UK,, we are 8 hours behind.

We were both very sorry to leave Hawaii and have decided that we may well go back at some point. However, looking forwards rather than back, we have San Francisco to eplore for the next few days. Our first hotel is near the airport and we will be moving into the city tomorrow, to the Fisherman's Wharf area. We have a couple of days there and then we will be picking up a hire car for a bit of exploring. We don't have a hotel booked for the last two nights but then a bit of heart-stopping uncertainty is good for a person.

Anyone not 'getting' the reference in the title, please google 'The Streets of San Francisco'