2nd June – Marina to San Francisco

There was a cool and misty start to the day today. The cold, damp air seems to blow in off the sea and only affects the first mile or two inland. You can actually tell when you are close to the sea because the temperature drops significantly. Leaving Marina we went north to join Highway 101 which, in theory at least, was going to take us to the door of our hotel in San Francisco.

In contrast to the delights of Highway 1 yesterday, 101 was a busy motorway with all the allure of the M6 in rush hour. At times it got quite scary with traffic joining at speed from the right, cars and trucks passing on both the left and right and some alarming lane-swapping manoeuvres among the more impatient drivers. The scenery was pleasant with green, rolling hills but there was little chance to appreciate it as we were too busy watching the traffic and looking out for direction signs. However at least we can now say that we do in fact know the way to San Jose.

The traffic seemed to be heavy for a Sunday but we managed to get into the centre of San Francisco without too much trouble. Unfortunately we missed a sign that was partly obscured by a tree and found ourselves close to our destination but lost in a one-way street system. After asking directions, which failed to help at all, we found ourselves on the Highway 80 freeway heading out of San Francisco over the Bay Bridge and we eventually ended up in Oakland at the other side of the bay!

We couldn’t find any friendly Hells Angels to ask directions from, so after consulting our maps, we planned our route back and crossed the Bay Bridge again. This time we had to queue up to pay a $5 toll. The bridge is a double decker structure, several miles long, with the outgoing 5 lanes underneath and the incoming ones on top. Therefore the trip back was much more enjoyable, partly because we knew we were going in the right direction and also because we had a fine view of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city itself.

This time (thanks to Mark’s sense of direction and navigation skills) we managed to stay with the 101 and it did indeed lead us to our hotel.

The place we are staying is the cheapest available in the centre of the city and we are very close to Union Square. The room is very small by American standards but we also have an adjoining sitting room which has a settee and a desk. We fully expect to be attacked by bed bugs and cockroaches in the night but, that aside, it seems more than adequate. The front window looks out on a massage parlour and the back window is about a metre from a brick wall but at least it makes a change from all those mountains and deserts. A lot of the buildings here have those metal fire escapes on the outside that appear so often in American films and TV series. On the streets there is a striking contrast between the upmarket shops, restaurants and hotels in this area and the number of people who are out there either begging or seeming to have mental health problems.

We’ve had a bit of a mooch about and seen Union Square (where there was an art exhibition and some live music) and checked out a bit of China Town. After a couple of overpriced drinks in a couple of pretentious bars we ate at a little Japanese restaurant near the hotel where the food was good and the place was reassuringly packed with Japanese tourists.

Tomorrow there will be more mooching about. We don’t have a set agenda other than a visit to Alcatraz booked for Tuesday morning so we’ll just have a wander round and see what we find.