A very foggy trip to Heathrow with the traffic snarled up everywhere and then suddenly we're up there - in both senses - above the clouds and in First Class. So an excellent Bordeaux for lunch and a feeling of total unreality and then we're in San Francisco.
Our friend met us at the airport and took us home to Oakland. I love the California architecture with a bit of Spanish in it, and the view - across the bay to the city. We walked and walked and walked (apart from trying cablecar travel a few times). For a big US city it's amazingly walkable and because it's hilly everywhere has a view. On this cloudless Thursday the views over the Bay were amazing, so we climbed the Coit Tower for an even better view, especially across to Sausalito via Alcatraz. The sky has a slightly wintery blue which brings out the white of the buildings in clear contrast with the green areas, and the pale blue of the waters of the Bay.
On Friday we had an expert tour of the Golden Gate Park, De Young Museum and the Pavilion of the Legion of Honour which is set on a high point overlooking the Pacific and contains a stunning collection from the Middle Ages onward of paintings sculpture and artefacts, mainly European. We met another friend for dinner in the Mission District where he lives. The restaurant had no tables but the md suggested we should wait in the pub on the corner and she would call us there. A pub in America is far more a bar where people can sit in a line than is the case in an English pub, but the atmosphere was great and the choice of drinks phenomenal. The restaurant called and I was sorry we had to rush our meal a little. Rushed back to Oakland by BART train after dinner and got home without waking up our hosts.
On the weekend we went on two different drives. Saturday to the Napa Valley where we tasted wine selling at US$80 a bottle, drove back to Oakland and bought good quality Shiraz for US$2!
On Sunday we were in Marin County across the Golden Gate bridge, eating an excellent lunch in the sunshine looking at the boats in Tiburon before heading over the the Pacific Coast for the sunset. Our hosts entertained us to the best Roast beef and brussels sprouts we'd ever tasted, and on Monday morning left at 7 to San Francisco airport to catch a plane to LA. Later the same day we planned to standby for a Qantas flight to New Zealand, but that's another story.
What makes San Francisco so loveable? It's not only visitors who fall for it. The locals themselves love their city.
