Todays major activity was to ride a bike to the golden gate bridge, ride over it to a town called Sausolito and catch the ferry back. A nice little bike ride apparently so rather than catch a bus to the bridge, i thought i’d bike it. I caught a cable car to Fishermans wharf. Funnily enough there was a bike hire shop right near the cable car stop. In fact the store I found has 5 stores right near all the public transport options…..
Only in America would I spend ages reading the fine print and selecting the box, yes i want insurance for $3. I also had to tick a box if i wanted a helmet too….. Soon enough after the guy gave me a map with a lot of instructions, most of which were not on the map, I was off on my tour of San Francisco.
The ride to the bridge is nice and flat. It was very scenic, I stopped repetitively for photo opportunities. In fact I’d overtake some joggers, stop to take photos and they jog past me, then do the same thing further down the path.
Golden Gate Bridge
Eventually I got to the fort that sits under the bridge. I looked up and thought how the hell do i get up there. I turned the bike around and just took the first steep road uphill. It got me there after a lot of walking, riding and stopping for photos to get my breath back.
The ride over the bridge is amazing. I’m sorry to upset Sydneysiders, but San Fransisco and its shoreline along the bay is a lot more scenic that Sydney’s Harbour, which is cluttered with buildings. The bridge was quite easy to ride over, in fact many of the bus catching people seemed to walk over the bridge and back.
Golden Gate Bridge
Once i got to the other side I got the to the exciting descent to Sausolito. I don’t know how they go down hills in the Tour de France at 60kmh but I was lucky to hit 20 or 30 I reckon. I could have gone faster but lack of faith in my brakes and the road had me using the brakes frequently.
Once in Sausolito, I rode straight past the ferry, because there is no sign to tell you where it is. In fact when I stopped and asked I gone 2 kms past it. The ferry ride gave me an opportunity to see the whole route I took in 20 minutes of comfort. My rear side still suffering from bike seat soreness.
Golden Gate Bridge
Back in San Francisco I wandered the beautiful streets, had a late lunch, checked out Hooters (they wear more clothing than you’d see on a teenage girl in a night club). Then i caught a cablecar back to the hotel, this time I stood on the outside and obeyed the Gripmans instrustions on corners and passing cable cars. I offered my services to kick a few windows in when a Mercedes pulled out in front of the cable car, but the Gripman declined and said he had mates to deal with them.
So its a sad note that this may be my last entry before I leave tomorrow. I have a late departure tomorrow night so another full day ahead in San Francisco still to go, but I have no idea if there is internet at the airport, If I’ll have time to use it etc etc.
So I land in Sydney around 8am Monday. Then on Tuesday I go to work, which may be a challenge as they moved offices, so I got to find the new building plus fight jetlag so if anyone at work is reading you know my excuses come tuesday morning ahead of time 🙂
So thanks all for reading. I will update the San Francisco entries with photos back home though and I’m sure someone may want to see some of the other couple of thousand photos I’ve taken.
So bye for now. See you in Oz.