Day 19 - Sun 02 Nov 2008

I awoke at a decent time at the Whitcomb Hotel considering the relatively-late night but what with re-packing my bags as we were changing hotels, an early check-out wasn't what was required.

Also, as the next hotel's check-in was not until 3pm and the Whitcomb had a computer room where I could access various emails and I needed to keep myself updated of where I stood with various bits of information, I stayed in the computer room until 2pm at which point Anthony returned from a walk he'd taken to the shops and then we walked down the road to catch a bus to as close as we could get to out hotel for the next night.

At this point, I invite all those people who complain about the quality of buses in England to come visit San Francisco! The buses here are long, for sure (those that "bend" in the middle) and hence fit in lots of people but the daily charge of $1.50 to use them is a fair price as they are reasonably old (they still have "pull cords" running down each side of the bus that is supposedly the technology in use to bring to the attention of the driver that a stop has been requested). Furthermore the seats appear "small" width-wise whilst the seats themselves are solid wood with no give in them whatsoever whilst the buses are difficult to stand up in when they are moving, even whilst gripping the handrail to keep from falling over when the bs brakes or when the accelerator is applied.

For $1.50 a day's travel across the city appears to be a decent deal.

After utilising this method of transport and checking-in at the hotel it was turned 4pm but we decided to use our bus ticket again, to get another bus up to the Golden Gate Bridge; with hindsight this was a much better than walking there because despite plenty of photos being taken it was very foggy by the time we arrived and with it also getting dark there was only about 30 minutes' opportunity to take photos before there was not enough light to do so. However, the lights on the Bridge itself assisted identifying the outline of the bridge for some night-shots - including what I believe are some of my best photos to date, particularly some "black-and-white" ones and some "colour-accented" ones (where, for instance, the yellow in a particular photo is picked up whilst everything else in the scene is a "neutral" black and white).

The Bridge itself was shrouded in fog when we arrived but still looked majestic; if nice weather comes along in the next few days a walk over to the other side may be worth doing.
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A bus back to the hotel - via an inadvertent detour on the bus going in the opposite direction that we wanted to go in! - pre-empted a walk to what I'd call a "proper" American diner (like the ones in films such as Pulp Fiction or Goodfellas) called Mel's Lombard to complete the day.

I ordered a ham steak with three poached eggs and potato which also came with...two pancakes (!); what was entitled a "Lumberjack" on the menu...whilst Anthony picked out a considerable half pound burger. My food was very good but oddly enough it was the potatoes - often the "forgotten food" of a meal when its included as essentially a side dish - that was the highlight although that doesn't mean the rest of the meal was bland by any means whilst Anthony's burger was the best he said he'd ever had.

To burn off some of the excess calories consumed from the pancakes a walk down Union Street - the "main street" of the Cow Hollow District renowned for its preserved Victorians that now house art galleries, antique stores, boutiques, fine dining and world-class spas - was deemed necessary. The street reminded me of the nicer parts of Oxford; indeed the entire street would not have looked out of place there.

Whilst on this walk, I noticed something slightly strange; even though it was not foggy at ground level, due to the low clouds / fog, the sky was a mix of black and grey...something I don't ever remember having seen in England before, with the clouds essentially being "lit up" from the lights in the San Francisco streets. This eerie sight made for some rather unusual photos.