Fishermans Rest
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Sep21
So, part the first of my big holiday / honeymoon write up. Slight preamble, some experiences on the way there. Our flights were at nice civilised times, but to save any rush and extend the holiday a bit, we booked into a hotel at Heathrow. But it was rubbish - I don't recommend staying at The Comfort Inn Heathrow. The TV was fuzzy, the bar / restaurant looked crappy, and there's NOTHING in the locality, it's a ghost town around there. So we made do with crisps for tea, and didn't go in the only local "fun pub" we could find as it also looked rubbish.
Our flight was GOOD! I hate flying, so a ten hour or so flight is not normally fun, but flying with Virgin was OK. We had a full TV on demand system in the headrests, so I watched The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (don't bother) and House with Hugh Laurie and got some sleep. Also they didn't mess up my vegan meal, result!
On to San Francisco then! We had a car booked, but decided to leave it at the airport, save having to struggle round town with it for the four days we were there, and also save on the parking. I was nervous about driving in America at all, until just recently I'd taken something like a ten year hiatus from driving, was a fly drive thorugh California such a good idea..? Put it off for a few days anyway, we got a shuttle from the airport to our hotel at Fisherman's Wharf. It's a tacky sort of place, we were expecting that, but somehow we were the only people in the world who didn't know it would be cold and foggy. HEY, If you're going to San Francisco, forget about the flowers in the hair, wear a big jumper! Our hotel was the Holiday Inn, it was all OK, free drink on arrival, coffee percolator in the room, pool table in the bar, but kind of average really. Went for a walk around Fisherman's Wharf, it's more rubbish than we suspected, a faded fairground area like Southsea. We saw the sealions, and completely failed to book onto a trip to Alcatraz. I'm not so keen on the Sealions, maybe it was just that it wasn't warm anyway, but thinking about them just sitting there in the harbour on decking doing nothing made me feel colder, and a bit sad. Alcatraz though, we knew we should book onto it in advance, we thought perhaps just the day before so didn't do it right away... it was a weekend and it was booked up four days in advance, so we completely missed out. If you're going there, book onto a trip as early as possible... We got some food in the Hard Rock Cafe (hey you can mock, but it's good to have somewhere reliable) left the Wharf seafront bit, and had a few drinks in Kennedy's bar nearby. It's a proper pubby sort of pub, they have masses of beers on tap, scruffy pool tables, and DARTS. We have recently got WELL into darts, so this was great. There's an attached curry house to this pub too. We came back here again, though not to eat.
We mooched around town a bit, there are shops there, it is a city. The shops were OK, though I found myself looking at the same sort of things I would have done at home, like the Levis store, department stores, and various kitchen type things. One place that sounded ALRIGHT in the guide book was the Embarcadero centre, The Lonely Planet guide made it sound worth a visit, but it was rubbish. One place we found by ourselves that was very nice though was the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building. Not sure you'd call it a real farmer's market, but it had lots of nice food and drink stuff all in one place, including the biggest selection of wild mushrooms I've seen...
We found getting around San Fran to be quite easy, it's not all that big, so we walked quite a lot of it, and got a cable car and trolley bus a couple of times. Food was alright in San Fran, though there weren't as many vege places as I expected. One delightful exception was Millenium, a full on vegan restaurant in the Savoy Hotel. As a birthday treat Clare took me to dinner there, and we had the full tasting menu - many courses, plus a different accompanying wines with each one. It was quite amazing, it's pretty much unheard of for me to go to a fancy restaurant at all, but to be able to eat everything there made this feel like a total one off. We got pretty squiffy, even though were being given half glasses of most of the wines (as there were so many) and it was a really great night. I can't recommend this place enough, helps if you are a vegan, but Clare liked it too. If you're going there, look out though - when we were trying to find the place at first, we stumbled into the Tenderloin San Francisco - didn't expect San Fran to get quite so grim so quickly, lots of homeless mental health issues, crack being smoked on the street etc. Lots of cities have this, but it's how close it was to such a fancy place that got me. Reminds me of Buffy "The bad part of town is just half a block from the good part of town - we don't have a whole lot of town"...
We also took a walk (past lots of NICE houses) to the Exploratorium, it's like the play and learn bit in the basement of The Science Museum here... there are lots of workshops and things, but also STUFF to try out. It's perfect for kids, the place was crawling with them in fact, but it was quite interesting for us too. Some of the exhibits / demos / toys there felt a bit shabby, but that must be just because of the thousands of tiny hands doing their best to break them each day. It's all in a nice park too, which you can probably see in a few of our pictures of San Fran.
Possibly from our pictures you can't tell just how steep the famously steep roads of San Francisco are. Man they're steep, feels like 45 degrees or more. If you can't do hill starts, don't try and drive there. Seems an insane place to have a bike race, but that's what they did, the San Francisco Grand Prix closed down the town while were there...
A final highlight of our trip to San Fran (I didn't think I enjoyed it as much as this!) was our fire engine tour of San Francisco. We got to put on fire-fighter uniforms and see the sites of the city (including going over the Golden Gate Bridge) on a Big Mack Shiny Red Fire Engine. Much recommended, the people who run it are a bit eccentric, and they like to sing all the way around the tour. Anyway, pictures of what to expect at www.fireenginetours.com, and more in our pictures of San Fran.
On to Monterey!
2005 :: Comment / reply
first of all, are you staying at the W Hotel? If not, it is next to Moscone and the bar in there called XYZ is really great - and the hotel a nice place if you can stay there. Around the downtown area, for lunch especially an SF tradition is Tadich's Bar and Grill - old Czech family run place since prohibition when my grandfather used to pick up gin there in the 1920s to bring down to university! Quite the mob deal then. But they have great ciopinno- and seafood. Also for lunch head up into North Beach (Italian town, next to Chinatown) and have a coffee at Cafe Trieste- off Colombus Street (I think on Green Street) and try lunch at Rosa Pistola- really great food, packed but worth it. Dont go to any other touristy places there, not worth it except the most famous and MUST DO bars at night are Vusuvios (where Ken Kesey, all the beatnics hung out), and Tosca (hard to get into, but worth it if you can get in the door). I also like some of the bars around the strip clubs on Broadway- but I forget the names, they are hard to get into too but if you go early is ok. Great indie music and really local place - "The Bottom of the Hill" it is in Potrero Hill which is also very local, but close area to your hotel, quick cab ride- sort of grunge scene, but will likely go under as Indie Music bars are a dying breed. If you want to head to Fishermans Wharf and try traditional SF crab, go to Scomas, no other place down there I suggest, too touristy, but Pier 23 is cool- it is up towards South Beach and has live music and local scene, esp. thurs- sat nights,but not sure if the music is that great anymore. For going out- I suggest the Mission which is more like Brixton and Soho mixed here with more of the West End when you enter the door- but great clubs - esp. Starlight Lounge (on 16th Street, near Valencia), real Mexican feast and best margaritas at Puerto Allegre (on Valencia St. between 16th and 17th), best sushi in town (hard to get into but worth the wait and BEST cocktails) is called Blowfish Sushi I think it is on Bryant st, in the Mission also. Then there is very popular and swanky bar also- Foreign Cinema with the bar inside called Lazlos- and across the street is classic place called Docs Clock with shuffleboard and strongest cocktails (in pint glasses) one margarita will kick your ass. Nicolas Cage hangs out there. Also the Make Out Room is a good bar with live music over on 22nd st, near Valencia. If you want more upscale the 'Marina' people- the girls that wear pearls and suits or whatever- then go to Russian Hill or Nob Hill- there are great places, esp. for a laugh the Tonga Room- an old 50s Hawaiian theme tiki lounge- one of the last remaining in the country- in the Fairmont Hotel and the Red Room is near there, also Gary Danko- very expensive, best food in town. To head out to the beach which you must do and please check the surf for me at Ocean beach and drink beer is at the end of Golden Gate park in the Avenues and I forget the name, but it is the only restaurant there- they make their own beer too.
