Alameda, California

Entering San Francisco we rediscover the joys of big cities, there is a huge traffic jam. About 2 hours later we finally manage to enter the city centre and try to find our way in order to drive on the famous Golden Gate Bridge. We’d better have done it getting out of the city because now we have to pay the toll to re-enter in San Francisco. As usual, we are not prepared and don’t really know which are the city’s must sees but we have a great idea : there is a hop-on hop-off bus just there so we decide to follow it. Unfortunately, after some time the bus driver notices we are following him and pulls off on the road side. He doesn’t want to continue the tour. It doesn’t matter, anyway, it’s late already and we’d better find a space to park the car so we can sleep. Another disadvantage of big cities is that’s it’s impossible to find a free parking space so we decide to spend the night out of the centre, in Alameda. The next morning, we visit the city centre and then we pay a parking for the day and walk around the Pier 39’s shopping mall, observe the noisy sealions and have an heavy nacho plate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Then we aboard a ferry leading us to The Rock. The entrance fee is quite expensive but it is worth it because the audio guide is included in the price and the visit is very well done. We could really imagine Alcatraz’s atmosphere. Back on the mainland, we find a map with the hop-on hop-off bus’s route so we can continue our touristic tour with Union Square, Chinatown, Japantown and some of the famous steep streets. We must admit that our first impression of San Francisco wasn’t very positive but once we saw all the interesting places we changed our mind and just love this city.