August 2010 - San Francisco

I just can't stop - in May Laine and I concluded that we couldn't stand not seeing each other for one summer. And so we took the last week of August, which was her only free week due to summer classes, and turned it into the best week of the year. The original plan was to go to New York together, but we had to give up on that plan due to high accomodation prices. Plan B, Seattle, had to be dropped as well since Laine's money only allowed for a ticket to Northern California.
We made the Travelogde Golden Gate our accomodation choice. Located on Lombard Street in the Marina District this hotel is situated within walking distance from the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Fisherman's Wharf and Downtown. That is, if you are not from Southern California where people even use their car to visit their neighbors. Since Laine is from SoCal, we had to take advantage of the various bus lines going by our hotel into virtually all directions so all parts of the city were easy to reach.

Mel's Drive-In Diner, one block from our hotel, became our favourite restaurant during the week.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Flight Hamburg - Newark - San Francisco

Usually going to America means getting up early. My plane boarded at 8:15 in the morning and since Continental's online check-in seems to only work with an American passport, I wanted to be at the airport early to get checked in properly.
Despite their bad reputation and the cheap price Continental Airlines suprised me positively, in terms of service, friendliness and comfort on board. Only the food was horrible, but that is the case with most airlines out there.
Immigration at Newark was fast and easy. I had to claim my baggage, pass customs and re-check it but still it took me only one hour after landing to get to the security check again. And so I was left with enough time to welcome myself to America:

A burger, as big and tasty as nowhere in Europe, seemed to be a suitable ritual. Maybe in the future, every time I arrive in the USA I will have an Angus Thirdpounder. One needs their rituals and traditions after all.

Having arrived in San Francisco I was facing a difficult task: finding my girlfriend. She was scheduled to arrive about half an hour after me, at the same terminal. I knew that she easily gets disoriented and insecure, thus making bad mistakes, so I brought my suitcase back into my possession as fast as I could and headed back to the passenger exit where eventually she came strolling along. After a warm greeting we went to get her baggage and took a shuttle van to the hotel. 17 dollars per person were a decent price.

Meanwhile the night had arrived and proceeded quite far so we didn't do much more that day except discovering the wonderful Mel's Drive-In for dinner.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Fisherman's Wharf

First on the agenda was Fisherman's Wharf. We walked there along Lombard Street, passing it's most popular section claimed to be the world's crookedest street.
At Pier 39 we went straight into the Aquarium of the Bay to obtain our San Francisco City Passes. With those we could not only take the bus for free for the rest of the week but also visit several museums and attractions free of charge.

Aquarium of the Bay

We are both fans of aquariums, after all we had been to the one in Long Beach twice before and enjoyed it twice. And so we went into this one as well. Unfortunately I have to say that it was a bit of a letdown since it is rather small and not very spectacular. But still we had a nice time there.

Alcatraz

Having left the aquarium we went to have a delicious lunch at Boudin sourdough bakery. Meanwhile, the sun had become a little bit more enjoyable after the cold morning. We strolled along the Embarcadero to Pier 33 where the Alcatraz ferries depart.

Alcatraz had originally been built as a fort to protect the Bay Area. Due to the unfortunate location it was later converted into a military prison and from 1934 to 1963 it was the infamous federal penitentiary as which it is known today.
We started with the audio tour through the cell block. On his MP3-Player the visitor listens to stories told by former inmates and employees. That way, the whole experience becomes way more personal and I almost saw the inmates and guards walking through the hallways and sitting in the cells.
The view on the city is very beautiful, making one think of the inmates who had to spend their time here on "the Rock" with the thriving city, the Golden Gate Bridge and all the ships and boats in the bay right in front of them. It is said that on New Year's Eve, the inmates could hear the party in the nearby yacht club. All this must have been psychological torture for them.
We took the last ferry back to the city.

Ghirardelli Square

It had been an adventurous day and so we were saturated for now as we sat down at the beach for a while to watch the sun set over the Golden Gate. On the way back to the hotel we took a detour through Ghirardelli Square, a nice little passage full of stores belonging to Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. We even got some chocolate samples. Until that day, I had only had horrible American candy and even more horrible American chocolate, but the Ghirardelli product I got to try was really good. Too bad it is not available here.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Golden Gate Bridge & Presidio

There is a famous lookout north of the Golden Gate Bridge. We wanted to go there and since the bus line serving that place only does so on Sundays, Sunday was set to be Bridge day.
We sat down at the bus stop by our hotel, waiting for the hourly bus 76. The screen announced the arrival time: in 20 minutes, in 10 minutes, in 3 minutes... and then, in 55 minutes. Apparently the bus had ended service in the middle of the route, it didn't arrive late either. It just was not there. And so we took the bus number 28 which at least stops at the south end of the bridge. From there we had a beautiful view as well. We walked from here down to Crissy Field where we sat down next to anglers on Torpedo Wharf and enjoyed the view on the bay. The hotel wasn't far which is why we started walking back until, six blocks from our destination, Laine insisted of taking the bus, which we then did.

The red dot marks the location of the bus stop by our hotel

The view from Torpedo Wharf

This curious sea lion stayed around for quite a while.

Alamo Square (Painted Ladies)

Since it wasn't late at all yet we just continued to another point on our list: Alamo Square. This is where the "Painted Ladies" are located, a row of victorian houses and one of the most popular photo and postcard motives in San Francisco. Alamo Square itself is a park located on top of a hill with a nice view on the surroundings and surrounded by beautiful houses of which the Pained Ladies are only some.
We stayed for the sunset even though it had become quite cold and windy again.

Pizza & movie night

If your hotel is right next to a pizza place that is said to make the best pizza west of New York, you can't resist taking some of that pizza into your hotel room. I had brought "The Hangover" on DVD, a movie we had seen in the theater the previous year and which had become one of our favourites. And so we ended this day eating pizza and watching a hilarious movie in bed.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bay Cruise

The Bay Cruise was free for us as City Pass holders and of course we didn't leave out the opportunity to see "The City" from the seaside. On board we learned some interesting facts about San Francisco, for example that a mayor had legally banned the word "Frisco" once. From Pier 39 we steamed along the coastline under the majestically beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. The wind was blowing quite strong again but thanks to the sun it wasn't very cold.

Alcatraz

Alcatraz

The famous sea lions at Pier 39

Downtown San Francisco

We took a historical crowded so called "streetcar" along the Embarcadero and Market Street to downtown, where we wanted to visit the Museum of Modern Art.

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

It was the first time that I really neutrally and honestly approached modern art, and I did not regret it. The museum is a wonderful place to not only look at art but somehow experience it. Even someone who never had anything to do with modern art should reserve some time to visit the SFMOMA. I can't waste many words on this as in the museum itself there is not much written.

Dinner at Bubba Gump, Pier 39 and movie night

Once again, Pier 39 wasn't far and so we drifted back there. Where should we eat dinner? The options were vast and we finally settled for Bubba Gump, well known from the movie Forrest Gump. The experience of eating there is really worth mentioning: the restaurant chain completely embraced the movie and almost everything there reminds of it. Aside from everything, they have food, too. And good food. I am really not a fan of seafood, not at all, but I almost couldn't get enough of the shrimps. We had a beautiful view on the bay, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate during one of those gorgeous sunsets you only get to see in California.
We browsed through the Bubba Gump souvenir store where - naturally - a lot of articles with film quotes advertise themselves. Since we had coupons for several stores on the Pier we looked at some of them to buy me a sweatshirt.

Thanks to our dinner location we both felt the need to watch the great movie Forrest Gump back at the hotel, and so we did. Or at least we watched the most of it as we both fell asleep some time in between.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Chinatown

Laine was headed for the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, allegedly the birthplace of the fortune cookie. The factory is located in a tiny little building in a tiny little street somewhere in Chinatown. It claims to produce several thousands of cookies each day, many of which are given to visitors for free. Big packages can be purchased for fair prices. The big difference between these cookies and those known in Germany is that these actually taste good while the German ones rather have the taste of folded cardboard.

It was a hot day, probably the hottest of the week. And it was lunch time, so we went looking for a nice restaurant to have some duck. There were enough of them and eventually, we could decide on one. I felt this painful thirst for a cold beer - the best thing you can do on a hot day like that one. The restaurant even had my favourite brand so I ordered. The thirst had made me forget that in the country of endless possibilities it is not possible for a grown up man to order a cold beer. At least not if he has been grown up for less than three years. And so when the waitress came back to check our age, Laine had to order the beer for herself and I ordered her water. This incident pretty much spoiled the whole day for me, even though I got my beer in the end.

Civic Center

That night we were going to see the musical "Wicked". It was to be performed at the Orpheum Theatre on Market Street. Since we didn't have anything to do we went there to claim our tickets already. Around the corner is the city hall of San Francisco, a truly beautiful building. And so we went there to take a look before strolling back across the United Nations Plaza and Market Street to a suitable bus stop. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the musical.

"Wicked" at the Orpheum Theatre

We had brought our best clothes for this occastion and so we appeared a little out of place on the bus, which once again was more than full and made the ride in the heat not too comfortable.
This time we got off at Van Ness Avenue and walked past the city hall to the theater. Laine's shoes broke then, making the short walk painful for her.
But still we managed to get there in time and get excited for the performance. And a good performance it was, Wicked is a great musical with beautiful songs, great effects and a moving story. It is based on "The Wizard of Oz", an American child story which is really known by every child over there, yet not by me. And so Laine had to help me out here and there explaining the background of characters and events. But that did not make my experience worse at all. When the performance was over it was too late for most buses already, which is why we took a taxi to the hotel. This is another point in which San Francisco is ahead of European cities: taxi rides are affordable. We only paid about twelve dollars for the ride.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Legion of Honor

The Legion of Honor is another art museum, but for more classic art. Once more we had free admission thanks to our City Passes. The building is situated in beautiful Lincoln Park all the way in the northwestern corner of the city, even west of the Golden Gate Bridge.
This is also the terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first direct road connection from coast to coast. Today this is not of much significance but still it is a historically interesting spot.

De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park

We took the bus to Golden Gate Park, which stretches through the western half of the city all the way to the Pacific Ocean. There is another art museum there (yes, SF has a lot of those), the de Young Museum. Admission is linked to that of the Legion of Honor, meaning it was free for us as well. At de Young Museum different types of art from different continents and ages are displayed.

American streets never cease to amaze me.

We had planned to visit the Japanese Tea Garden but when we learned that admission was not free we let go of that.

Coit Tower

The day was still young and so we headed across the city to Telegraph Hill. The previous year we had already been at the Coit Tower, but not on top of it. We did that now, for a moderate entry fee so little that it was even worth it when we learned that meanwhile, the fog had creeped back into the city, limiting the view which for sure is gorgeous in clear conditions.

View along Greenwich Street toward Russian Hill.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

California Acadmy of Sciences

When we had been at the California Welcome Center on Pier 39 days before we were warmly encouraged to visit the Academy of Sciences. We had planned to do so anyway and on this cold day we headed back to Golden Gate Park.

The Academy is a humongous natural science museum including a natural history museum, an aquarium and a planetarium - allegedly as the only institution in the world.
It is indeed a place to spend a whole day. The aquarium includes a big coral reef, there is an artificial rainforest in which birds, butterflies and fish greet the visitor eye to eye. In the planetarium the visitors are sent on a wonderful journey through the universe and around all that are changing exhibits. When we were there they had an exhibit on "Extreme Mammals" showing exactly that: mammals which are extreme in terms of size, adaption to a certain environment or are impressive results of evolution. They even showed the bones of "Lucy", the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor.

Giant roaches

The Philippine coral reef

The albino alligator, only one of the rarities here.

If I remember it correctly this is the largest rattlesnake in captiviy worldwide.

The tunnel in the Amazon section impressed me a lot. The whole Amazon-themed section is the connection between the aquarium downstairs and the rainforest upstairs. The pool through which the tunnel leads is also part of the rainforest. I love that concept. It is well thought and the structure allows to understand how everything is connected.

Piranhas

The Academy is an ecologic building. Insulation is made of used jeans and the roof is a "living roof", covered with plants. From there you have a great view on the neighboring de Young Museum.

Dinner at Johnny Rockets

It was our last night together and as always the sadness was supressed. We had dinner at a new fast food place: Johnny Rockets. I have had better food than this, about half of my burger's weight - the fat - dripped back on the table while I was eating.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Flight San Francisco - Newark - Hamburg

We knew that we were totally sleep-deprived. Had we gone to bed that night, we might not have had the energy to get back up to catch our shuttle which was to pick us up at 4:15. And so we just stayed awake all night which should pay back badly later on. We managed to stay awake and not miss the shuttle. At the airport we started to get melancholical - and tired. We sat at a bench for a while, only half awake, until it was time for me to board my plane. Laine's departed only minutes after mine. It was hard to say goodbye but still we were happy thinking of the awesome week we had lived.

My flight to Newark departed on time and I slept almost completely through it. On the connecting flight to Hamburg I was in for a special treat: in beautifully clear conditions we climbed out of Newark crossing Manhattan and the Long Island Sound. Those are the moments that reward the person in the window seat for the drawbacks of almost never getting to stretch their legs or get out of their seat.
Back home I had finally managed to turn my sleep schedule upside down. It took me about a week to get rid of the jetlag. But it was worth everything!

The view on Manhattan from Newark Airport

"Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby