Part 8 - San Francisco and Alcatraz

I've just realised that I've been spelling San Francisco as San Fransisco for the last 44 years of my life. 

Anyway, everyone who has visited San Francisco recommended climbing up the hill to the Coit Tower. It was quite the climb just to get to the bottom of the tower ...

... but at the top, you get great views over the whole of San Francisco, although I reckon the views would be even better if you were allowed up one of the skyscrapers they've built more recently. 

The Coit Tower is located at the top of Lombard Street, famous for its steep and crooked nature. Sadly/happily, I'd already returned the hire car at this point so I couldn't get a shot at it. 

Similar to the Pinball Museum in Las Vegas, San Francisco has a "Mechanical Museum" - a fascinating collection of coin-operated games and other exhibits dating back over the last century. Here's one of the machines - a graphic recreation of a beheading during the French revolution. Twenty-five cents well spent. 

Combining my love of islands and abandoned buildings, Alcatraz was a high-point. The tour is well done, and you're given free rein to wander over most of the island, except for the bits that are crumbling or have been taken over by wild-life. The island has a fascinating history, both before and after it was a civilian prison.

 

Not sure why they bothered making a film about it.
I manage to escape with very little fuss.

I also took a cable car home from Alcatraz. Had to queue up for over an hour in the freezing cold (my fault for assuming San Francisco would be warm in the evening), but it was a very enjoyable and more like a rollercoaster than I was really expecting. 

I should really have taken a video

This was my last leg of my trip. Air Canada helpfully cancelled my flight, and a special shout-out to www.trip.com who never bothered to tell me. To cut a very long story short, ended up landing in Toronto in the middle of the night, getting a bus in completely the wrong direction, getting another wrong bus, and still managed to get home before my scheduled arrival time. 

Anyway, next stop in a couple of weeks will be out West ...